
Class 3 cC k 

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



TRUE WEALTH 



TRUE WEALTH 

OR, WHAT IS HE WORTH? 



BY 
J. SHERMAN WALLACE, M. A., B. D. 

u 
Professor in McMinnville College 
Author of " What of the Church ? " and 
" The Real Imitation of Christ," etc. 



PHILADELPHIA 

THE GRIFFITH & ROWLAND PRESS 

1913 









Copyright 1913 by 
A. J. ROWLAND, Secretary 



Published February, 1913 



©CU343419 

tot 



Go 

THE MEMORY OF HIM WHO WAS RICH IN 

THAT WHICH IS BETTER THAN GOLD, 

WHO TAUGHT ME BY PRECEPT AND 

EXAMPLE THE POWER OF AN 

IDEAL, WHO REALIZED THE 

LIFE TRIUMPHANT 

flflte ifatber 

PHARAOH LINDSAY WALLACE 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I. Wealth 9 

II. Prosperity 23 

III. Success 35 

IV. Luxury 49 

V. Risks 59 

VI. Opportunity 69 

VII. Stability 81 

VIII. Dissolution 95 

IX. Profit 107 

X. Taking Stock 119 

XI. The Price 131 

XII. The Estimate 141 

XIII. The Silent Partner 151 



1 



Wealth 



" What doth it profit a man, to, gain the whole world, and 
forfeit his life?" 




|E seem to live in a commercial age. 
Its spirit has gotten into our souls. 
The gold-mad multitude, worn with 
labor and ridden with care, are blinded to vice 
and to virtue. How much is there in your life 
that is not for sale? Judas sold the Christ for 
nineteen dollars. Men sell him to-day for less. 
Jesus of Nazareth is not the only man who has 
stood face to face with the temptation to use his 
God-given powers, his own peculiar talents, to 
make bread. Success to many of us has come 
to mean earthly prosperity. The man we admire 
and envy is he who rides in the finest car, and 
we forget the man who is poor. It is a time to 
remember that earth's greatest men, even of 
modern times, have not all been men of wealth. 
Agassiz was too busy to lecture at five hundred 
dollars a night, because he had no time to make 
money. Charles Sumner refused to lecture at 
any price because, he said, as senator, all of 
his time belonged to Massachusetts. Spurgeon 

["] 



[i2] zmc TOlealtb 

refused to come to America and deliver fifty lec- 
tures for fifty thousand dollars, saying that he 
could do better — he could stay in London and try 
to save fifty souls. And Emerson, the immortal 
sage of Concord, steadfastly refused to increase 
his income beyond one thousand two hundred 
dollars because he wanted all his time to think. 

Yet as we shrink from the spirit that would 
sacrifice all for gain, let us not fail to set upon 
things their right value. 

Wealthy in Itself \ is Not to be Condemned 

Jesus did not condemn it. He never spoke one 
word against wealth. Some of his best friends 
were comparatively wealthy. The home of Mary 
and Martha and Lazarus, the home where Jesus 
loved best to stay, was a home of wealth. Those 
who dwelt there held social position, to say the 
least, above the average. The beloved apostle, 
John, who leaned upon the Master's breast, be- 
longed to a family which in its time was con- 
sidered wealthy, and he himself always had 
enough and to spare. Of even the rich young 
ruler, we are told that Jesus looked upon him and 
loved him. It is by no means certain that Jesus 



liglealtb [13] 

himself was desperately poor. He seems never 
to have been in want. " For your sakes he be- 
came poor " can bear no reference to poverty in 
an earthly sense. The life of humiliation which 
Jesus lived placed no stigma upon either wealth 
or poverty. 

Jesus saw the dangers of the influence of 
wealth and warned against them. In all his 
warnings he spoke of this influence, the tendency 
which it has to gain the mastery of the man and 
to possess him who is supposed to possess it. 
Jesus never spoke of an evil of holding wealth in 
the hand ; evil comes when it is held in the heart. 
Wealth is like the crystal water that springs from 
the hillside. It is necessary to life. Without it 
all becomes a desert and life is barren. Given an 
outlet it flows down and out over a dry and 
thirsty land; new life springs up; flowers blos- 
som; each stream subdivides, and none can count 
all its blessings. But if banked up, no outlet being 
given, it becomes a stagnant pool Few flowers 
blossom round it; none is made glad. It breeds 
sickness and death, and he who dwells beside it is 
first to suffer its fatal effects. 

Then wealth becomes an evil. When it be- 
comes your " treasure " your heart is buried in 



[i4] TErue TOlealtb 

it When it is made an end, and not a means, it 
becomes a golden idol. When it blinds the soul 
to God and to humanity, then life is forfeited and 
it profits nothing. Christ never told Mary and 
Martha to give up all they had. They did not 
make it their treasure. Their hearts were with 
him. He never told the beloved John to give up 
all he had. John loved Jesus more than all else. 
He did tell the rich young ruler to go and sell 
all that he had and give it to the poor, because 
he had made wealth his " treasure/' and it stood 
between him and his God. If Christ should come 
to-day we cannot affirm that he would go first to 
the very poor. There is no virtue in being poor. 
Some have dared to speak of the duty of pros- 
perity. He would not tell all of us to give up all 
we had, but he would surely tell some of us to do 
so. The very fact that none of us thinks he 
would so speak to us ought to make us suspicious. 
That we are not rich is not an evidence that we 
have not placed wealth before God. " The love 
of money is a root of all kinds of evil," and this 
love may exist in its strongest form where its 
object is least to be found. 

We have learned to think of its being a Chris- 
tian's privilege to get all the wealth he can by 



Wealth [15] 

honest means. One of Christ's strongest para- 
bles was spoken in condemnation of the man 
who had failed to increase the money his lord 
had given him. But we are to get not for our- 
selves alone. We are to get that we may return 
it to our Lord ; that we may use it for him. Who- 
ever amasses wealth only for himself, and fails 
to look through it and beyond it to the things 
that endure, goes out of this world a beggar, 
hungry, naked. 

True Life is Not Conditioned by Wealth 

It may be hindered by it. Making a life is a 
bigger thing than making a living. Many have 
made great livings but poor lives. Many have 
made great lives but scant livings. Goldsmith's 
' Village Preacher " made a glorious life and 
was "passing rich on forty pounds a year." 
Luther lived a great life and transformed Chris- 
tendom, but he never made more than three hun- 
dred dollars during a single year of that life. 
You are familiar with Doctor Van Dyke's story 
of "The Other Wise Man"; a poor living but 
a telling life, and he found the new-born King. 
For proof that a living does not imply a life, 



Q] Zxuc Mealtb 

look at the miser who lives only for his gold and 
sees nothing in earth nor in heaven besides it. 
Jesus, to impress this truth, painted two pictures. 
One of them, a rich man, clothed in purple and 
fine linen, feasting at a table well laden, while 
the poor, dying beggar lies unnoticed at his gate. 
The other, Lazarus is happy, Dives is begging in 
anguish. A living or a life? Which is better? 
It was of such a man as Dives, who lived in 
modern times, that the bold poet of the Sierras 
had just been told when he wrote : 

The gold that with the sunlight lies 

In bursting heaps at dawn, 
The silver spilling from the skies 

At night to walk upon, 
The diamonds gleaming in the dew, 
He never saw, he never knew. 

He got some gold dug from the mud, 

Some silver crushed from stones; 
But the gold was red with the dead man's 
blood, 
The silver black with groans; 
And when he died he moaned aloud, 
u They'll make no pocket in my shroud ! " 

Character, virtue, the attainment of ideals, these 
are the things worth while. These mean more 
than a living ; these mean life. When these are not 



WLealtb [17] 

won life is left a blank page ; nothing permanent is 
written. These, like happiness, are not found by 
those who seek them. Systems of ethics and mo- 
rality fail to give them. They may be attained not 
so much by doing as by being. Jesus taught that 
the true life and all its concomitants are not added 
on from without, but must spring from within. 
He sought to build character not by running the 
outward life through an iron mold, but he would 
perfect the outward life by transforming the 
character. No horticulturist ever made a tree 
have roots by grafting fruit to its outward 
branches. Given roots, planted deep in living 
soil, the fruit will come. The soul of improve- 
ment must ever be the improvement of the soul. 

While we seek to save the life from being for- 
feited for worldly gain, let us not forget that it 
may be forfeited for " other worldliness " too. 
Those things which we hold as best — eternal life, 
virtue, perfection of character itself, if sought 
for their own sakes may become only objects of 
selfish desire. If made an end in themselves, they 
become only other forms of wealth which may 
prove fatal to a true life. Gaining life, eternal as 
well as temporal, men sometimes forget to live. 
Each Gospel writer repeats the saying of Jesus, 



[is] xrrue Wealth 

and two of them repeat it twice : " Whosoever 
would save his life shall lose it; but whosoever 
shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save 
it" This is a trans-valuation of values which the 
world never dreamed of until Jesus came. 

Christ showed true life to be self-giving, not 
self-saving. Christ gave all, even his life, that 
he might take it again. He lived a life and died 
a death of sacrifice, and asks all who would be 
his disciples to take up their crosses and follow 
him. The true nature of sacrifice itself is not 
negative but positive. To say that Christ died is 
less true than to say that he poured out his life 
for men. Giving, not getting, is the watchword 
of the true life. Self-impartation, not self-per- 
fection, is the foundation-stone of character. In 
that exquisite poem, the " Toiling of Felix," the 
youth finds not perfection of character in lonely 
contemplation at home, neither does he find his 
heart's desire, a vision of his Lord, in the her- 
mit's cell; but only as he pours out his life in the 
common toil of men. Only as he drags from the 
waves a drowning comrade does he fancy that 
another walks beside him on the water, and only 
as he bends over a fainting friend, shading his 
burning brow with woven leaves of palm, does he 



Wealtb [19] 

see beneath them, smiling, the Master's face. 
Xapoleon once called for volunteers to take the 
enemy's stronghold, with the assurance that it 
meant, in all probability, death to those who went. 
The Old Guard stepped out to a man, Jesus 
Christ, the great Captain, calls for volunteers to 
take the strongholds of sin. Only when men 
stand out strong, resolute, prepared to die, shall 
they be alive in truth. " Except a grain of wheat 
fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself 
alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit." 

When Jesus spoke of forfeiting the life for a 
living, the context makes it plain that he meant 
the life which is eternal. But it is a mistake to 
suppose that he referred only to the great future. 
It is a greater mistake to think of eternal life as 
belonging only to the future, and as being some- 
thing apart from the life that now is. In all Jesus' 
teaching, he said but little of the life to come. 
He had much to say of the present life. He lived 
each day for eternity and as a part of it. Eter- 
nity is but the present projected over into the 
future. If we forfeit to-day we forfeit a part of 
to-morrow's achievement. If we forfeit child- 
hood and youth, we forfeit in large measure man- 
hood and old age. If we forfeit the life that 



[go] TEtue Mealtb 

now is, the life that is eternal is lost. The Indian 
poet spoke much truth when he said : 

I sent my soul through the invisible, 
Some letter of that after-life to spell, 

And by and by my soul returned to me 
And answered, " I myself am heaven 
and hell." 

The end of life is to do the Master's work. 
The reward of life is the joy of service. Not all 
of us can follow the path that leads like the In- 
dian's trail from mountain peak to mountain 
peak. Many of us walk through the lowlands. 
Some of us must walk alone. But beside each 
one of us, if we are true to him, will walk an 
unseen Friend. Let us rejoice in our work be- 
cause it is for him. Let us rejoice in it, not for 
what we shall get in return, not for what men 
may say of us, not even for the eternal gifts which 
God in his bounty will bestow upon us, but let 
us rejoice for that which we may accomplish as 
co-workers with Jesus Christ. When they would 
make Christ king he disappeared; but he walked 
unflinchingly to Calvary and on the cross he tri- 
umphed. Not that we are to search out the 
hard places merely because they are hard; not 
that we are to rejoice in sacrifice for its own 



Mealtb [21] 

sake. The days when men stood upon high pil- 
lars for months, when men walked through the 
streets stripped to the waist, lacerating their 
bleeding flesh with cruel scourges, are past. 
Heaven is never brought nearer by making earth 
a hell. Let us enjoy all that God gives us, but let 
us use it so that earth may be lifted Godward and 
heaven will bend nearer to meet us. Oh, the 
grandeur of a life, a life just lived to-day, a life 
that needs to make no apology for itself ! Christ 
sanctified human life by living it. He plucked 
the thorns and the thistles of labor, and in his 
hands they changed to roses and lilies redolent 
with the breath of heaven. Let us render unto 
God all that bears his image: 

This is the gospel of labor — ring it, ye bells of the kirk— 
The Lord of love came down from above to live with the 

men who work. 
This is the rose that he planted, here in the thorn-cursed 

soil — 
Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but the blessing of Earth 

is toil. 



inr 



prosperity 



The life is more than the food' 3 




II 



HE age is fleet. The heart of the world 
beats strong, the pulse runs high. The 
strenuous life prevails. The noise of 
wheels within wheels is deafening. The fire in 
the furnace never dies. The street is hot with 
the rush of hurrying feet. The time-schedule of 
the trolley and the train grows shorter with every 
passing day. The morning prayer has been dis- 
placed by a hurried blessing, and even the good- 
bye kiss has been forgotten. The long evening 
has grown shorter, until the midnight oil burns, 
not by the hearthstone, but in the office and the 
school The world leaps forward panting for 
breath. Life flows fast, the days are short, and 
prosperity is the goal. Anxious, breathless, men 
grasp the glittering prize, only to find its hollow- 
ness and emptiness as it crushes in their hands. 

A False Sense of Prosperity is Rife 

We have forgotten the words of the Master, 
" The life is more than the food, and the body 

05] 



Q6] TEtue Wealth 

than the raiment/' The unsuccessful look at 
those who have gone on before, and they see 
only the influence, opportunity, and authority 
that follow them. They do not see the increased 
responsibilities, the crushing cares, the blinding 
demands on time and strength and means that go 
hand in hand with success. They do not know 
that success has its tragedies no less than failure. 
They do not know that a humble, quiet life may 
be as truly prosperous as one of world-wide 
fame. They do not know that the end of life 
is not wealth, fame, nor pow r er. They do not 
know that the body is only the means which the 
true personality may use. There was a maga- 
zine published in the East called " Success/' In 
one of its numbers it tells how men who have 
wealth and fame have won them and how others 
may follow after them. But one must learn that 
the truly successful life is not necessarily the one 
that is rich in what men call wealth. The glare 
of riches that terminate on self has blinded men's 
souls to God's favor which is life, to faith which 
is precious, to the riches of good works, to wis- 
dom which is better than rubies, and to peace 
that passeth all understanding. We are born 
into the world with our hands outstretched. 



prosperity [27] 

We grasp the tinsel ball before us and cry for 
the moon, which we cannot reach. As we grow 
older the desire remains, but the desired does not 
come so fast. Well for us that it does not ! But 
we learn this slowly. Life is different than we 
thought, but richer far than we dreamed. Happy 
is he who learns early that the fulness of life is 
found not in being loved and in getting, but in 
loving and giving. Jesus never possessed his 
life so truly as in the hour when he laid it down ; 
for having laid it down he could take it up 
again, lifting with it a struggling world. 

We forget that the end of life is to live, not 
to earn. College curriculums are being short- 
ened ; young men are being taken from the school 
when the course is but half finished; the college 
of liberal arts is being robbed by the business 
college and the professional school, in order that 
these young men may be rushed into business, 
thrown headlong into the battle for wealth, All 
this is justified by pointing to the men who, with- 
out a liberal education, have climbed to the top of 
the ladder of wealth or fame. If the end of life 
were earning there would be some reasons for 
this course, though statistics show that its con- 
tentions are false. But if the end of life is 



[28] Utue Wealtb 

living, this course is demoralizing to the manhood 
and womanhood of our country. It is one thing 
to put a boy in a school that he may learn how to 
earn; it is another thing, and a far better thing, 
to put him in a school that he may learn how to 
live. 

Does it pay, I wonder, to toil for gold 

Till the back is bowed and bent, 
Till the heart is old and the hair is white, 

And life's best days are spent; 
Till the eyes are blind with the yellow dust 

That we strive for day by day, 
Till all we hear is the coin's dull clink: — 
I wonder, does it pay? 

Does it pay, I wonder, to never stop, 

In the ceaseless rush and care, 
And list to the songs of bird and brook, 

Or wander through woodlands fair; 
To never think of what lies beyond 

The narrow sphere of to-day, 
Till the new life dawns on our untried souls — 

I wonder, does it pay? 

This false sense of prosperity is 



A Real Danger to the Trite Success of Our Lives 

One of the greatest moral dangers through 
which our people are passing to-day is the com- 
plete absorption of time and thought and strength 



prosperity [29] 

in material things. The power of attention is 
limited. Most of us can have but few deep af- 
fections at the same time. Those who yield them- 
selves to the sweep of the tide of material energy 
are torn from their spiritual moorings; not by 
gross temptations because they are spoiled by 
wealth, many never secure it, but in that they have 
no time to think of God and holiness; in that the 
wider vision is shut out by the surrounding moun- 
tains of material things ; in that the close of each 
day finds body and mind and soul exhausted and 
without ability or inclination for the contempla- 
tion of higher things. This is why so many men 
who grow fat in goods at the same time grow r 
lean in soul. The heart contracts, the thought 
grows narrow, and the soul is starved. It is the 
pace that kills. 

There is danger to-day that men will forfeit 
character and peace for wealth and power. 
When John Robertson was in this country he told 
the story of a crofter whom he knew. The man 
at the public house had died and the crofter 
bought the business. In a little while he wore a 
massive chain of gold and rode in the finest car- 
riage. But one night he and his wife were un- 
able to sleep, and lay listening to the creaking of 



[so] TLxnc TKHealtb 

the sign as it swung in the wind, and the little 
girl said : " Papa, I can't get out of my mind the 
oaths of the men who were drinking in the inn 
to-night.' ' They concluded that the old home 
with its poverty was better, and back they went 
to the little patch of ground. And Robertson 
said that the last he ever knew of them they were 
contented and happy, and one of the boys was 
preparing to go as a Christian missionary to 
Africa. Do not let us forget to-day that the life 
is more than meat; that the wealth of life is not 
to be reckoned in dollars and cents, but in char- 
acter, purity, helpfulness, and satisfaction of 
heart. 

Before Charles W. Eliot was elected presi- 
dent of Harvard University, he was offered the 
superintendency of a cotton-mill at a salary much 
larger than was then paid to the president of the 
college. He decided, however, to remain in the 
work of education, for which he believed himself 
better fitted. How much the world would have 
lost had he yielded to the flattering financial offer, 
and how much the great good man would have 
lost in honor and helpfulness and character ! He 
chose the better part, and after thirty-five years 
of consecrated service as president of Harvard, 



prosperity [3*3 

how beautifully appropriate was that little inci- 
dent which occurred during the celebrations of 
his seventieth birthday, when, at a family gather- 
ing, a lady handed him a note which she had been 
asked to deliver, and the old man opening it 
found not a word, only a leaf, but it was a laurel. 

Darwin at the end lamented the fact that, be- 
cause of his long attention to the prosaic work 
of science, he had lost the power to appreciate the 
finer arts. Many men who have set out to amass 
a fortune in order that they might live as they 
chose, have come at last, after the fortune has 
been made, face to face with the fact that they 
have forgotten how to live, that they are unable to 
enjoy the fortune which they have gained. Bet- 
ter far to be able to appreciate what we cannot 
have than to have what we cannot appreciate! 
The man who is able to appreciate and enjoy is 
the man who really owns, not the man who by 
chance holds the title. Who owns the towering 
mountains, the rolling sea, the blue hills, and the 
green fields of the valley ? They whose souls are 
thrilled and who catch visions of the Infinite as 
they feast their eyes upon their matchless beauty. 

The only life of value is the one that contrib- 
utes something to the world of which it is a 



[3f] XErue Wealth 

part. No life can contribute until it has some- 
thing to give. " Seek ye first the kingdom of 
God," said Jesus, " and all these things shall be 
added unto you." If the kingdom of heaven 
comes into our lives all things shall be ours that 
are good and noble and true. We shall be able to 
give to him that asketh, for we shall be rich in 
all that belongs to the noblest life. Just to be 
able to say at the close of each day : " I have 
contributed something to the pleasure, comfort, 
or happiness of one of God's children; I have 
made one, at least, of God's little ones a little 
wiser or a little better this day " ; just to be able to 
say with the Christ at the close of the day, " I 
have finished the work which thou gavest me to 
do " ; just to know that God is ours, that heaven 
is round us now, this is supreme success, this is 
more than food, this is the prosperous life. 

I said, " Let me walk in the fields." 

He said, " No, walk in the town." 
I said, u There are no flowers there." 

He said, " No flowers, but a crown." 
I said, " But the skies are black, 

There is nothing but noise and din." 
And he wept as he sent me back, 

"There is more," he said, "there is sin." 
I said, " But the air is thick, 

And fogs are veiling the sun." 



prosperity [33] 

He answered, " Yet souls are sick, 

And souls in the dark undone." 
I said, u I shall miss the light, 

And friends will miss me they say." 
He answered, " Choose to-night 

If I am to miss you, or they." 
I pleaded for time to be given. 

He said, "Is it hard to decide? 
It will not seem hard in heaven 

To have followed the steps of your Guide " 



IMfl 



Success 



"In your steadfastness ye shall win your lives.' 3 




Ill 



IIENRY WARD BEECHER received a 
letter from a lad one day, asking for 
an easy berth. To this the great man 
replied : " You cannot be an editor ; do not try the 
law; do not think of the ministry; let alone all 
ships and merchandise ; abhor politics ; don't prac- 
tise medicine; be not a farmer or a soldier or a 
sailor; don't study; don't think. None of these 
is easy. O my son, you have come into a hard 
world. I know of only one easy place in it, and 
that is the grave! " Yet it is the life that grap- 
ples with one of these things and wins that men 
honor. Men and women so often say : " If the tri- 
umphant life were easy I would live it. If in this 
world there were not so many vexations and 
temptations, if my lot had been cast within an 
environment that was conducive to right and 
noble living, if my parents or my brothers or my 
children were consecrated to pure and holy ideals, 
I too would live the life triumphant. But on this 
earth it is impossible to live a life of victory; to 

[37] 



[38] _ TLvvlc Mealtb 

go forth amid all the world's allurements, face its 
temptations and bear its burdens, and yet come 
forth triumphant, singing the songs of victory." 
" It is impossible/' they say, and they will point 
to the last rash act of the suicide, to the unknown 
grave in the Potter's Field as evidence of life's 
disaster and failure. They will tell of him who, 
missing his aspirations and failing in his ambi- 
tions, in despair gave up the fight. They will 
point to those lives that are dwarfed and de- 
formed and enslaved. It is true that many have 
made of life a failure, not because of the con- 
ditions of the battle-field, not because of the ob- 
stacles, but because of him who failed. With- 
out these things there could be no triumphant 
life, no real success. " If there be no enemy, no 
fight; if no fight, no victory; if no victory, no 
crown." The life triumphant is possible. It is 
the only life God meant that men should live. 
The weakling will fail anywhere; the steadfast 
can live. 

What is Success? 

What is the end of true life ? Not wealth, not 
pleasure, not wisdom; but character. Happiness 
itself is not the end of life, it may be selfish and 



Success [39] 

shallow and evil. Character that is life, char- 
acter that glorifies God its author and end, char- 
acter that rises high and pure above dissension 
and trial, that is the end of life, that is victory. 
The end of life is not to feast the soul with 
music; the end of life is to fashion the soul into 
an instrument for the giving of music, music 
that shall be marred by no false note. That is 
why so many lives have not the beauty of the 
music-hall, but are like the factory that produces 
the instruments, filled with dust and shavings 
and toil. 

The school is not so much a place to instil 
wisdom as it is a place to build men and women. 
The boy may fail in one or many studies ; do not 
discourage him; if he comes out with the char- 
acter of a man he has won. The girl may not 
lead her class, but if she comes out pure and true 
for life, that is success. God has given us our 
business not so much that we may gain wealth 
as that we may be made into men. 

The getting of wealth is only an incident, the 
provision for the life that is being built. No man 
need fail in business. The work may fail, the 
man need not. The business may perish, but the 
man may triumph. The very loss may strengthen 



[4oj ZEme Mealtb 

the character; the very trial may call out the 
triumphant life. The man who will let his last 
piece of goods go that no one else may lose, the 
man who does so, compelled by no law but the 
consciousness of right, wins. The man who pays 
the outlawed note, when it takes his last dollar to 
do it, succeeds. The man who takes into his busi- 
ness the same principles he takes into his prayer 
meeting wins, no matter on which side of the 
book the red ink appears. The victorious life 
does not demand that you become a great lawyer, 
a great physician, or a great merchant; but it 
does require that you shall so carry yourself 
through life as to uplift and not blight your 
fellow 7 men, so as to help and not to hinder, so 
as to elevate and not degrade them. It does 
demand that you shall not gain riches by im- 
poverishing those who help you to become 
wealthy ; that your dollars shall be clean and not 
smirched with the guilt of getting ahead of your 
competitors by sharp and dishonest practice. It 
demands that your wealth shall not be stained 
with the blood of widows or orphans or honest 
men, that you shall not lift yourself up by pulling 
others down. 

Victory is, to win in the highest, even at the 



Succegg [41] 

cost of the lowest. At the battle of Missionary 
Ridge, when the Union soldiers had carried the 
heights and their shouts of triumph came float- 
ing down the hill, a poor, dying boy looked into 
the face of his comrade upon whose arm he lay, 
and asked anxiously, "What is it?" His com- 
rade answered, " It is our boys. They have car- 
ried the heights and planted our old flag on the 
highest peak." The wounded lad smiled as he 
drew his last breath, and whispered, " I helped 
put it there." He died, ah, but he won that day. 
It is a fine thing to see a boy, having played fairly 
and honestly, when the game is lost reach out his 
hand in manly congratulation to his victor, for he 
too has won. It is a splendid thing to see a man, 
having lost the fight, hold up his head and go 
fonvard. The man who sulks and pouts like a 
child because he could not have everything his 
way has lost everything. This is the life trium- 
phant which God means each one of us to live. 

How Can We Attain Success? 

It is possible for every one. 

Out of the night that covers me, 
Black as the pit from pole to pole, 

I thank whatever gods there be 
For my unconquerable soul. 



[42] utrxc Wealtb 

It matters not how strait the gate, 
How charged with punishments the 
scroll, 

I am the master of my fate; 
I am the captain of my soul. 

If you would triumph you must forget the past. 
Look forward. Do not fix your eyes upon the 
mistakes that are behind. A crazy man was 
found at a grindstone sharpening a large butcher- 
knife and every now and then feeling of its edge. 
When asked what he was doing, he replied, 
" Can't you see? Sharpening this knife." " But 
what for? " " Cut old Ben Brown's head off for 
sure." " What! You won't kill him? " " Oh, no, 
I'll only cut his head off and stick it right on 
again, hindside before, so the old fellow can get 
a better look upon his past life. It won't bother 
him any ; it will help him. It will take him all the 
rest of his days to review, and that is all he does 
anyway." The triumphant life must have the 
forward look. A distinguished jurist lost an 
important case in the courts. He showed no feel- 
ings of discouragement. A friend asked him how 
he could take his disappointment so calmly. 
" When it is over," said the great lawyer, " I 
have no more to do with it. If I kept thinking of 
my defeats I feel that I should go mad. I will not 



Success [«] 

brood over them. When one case is done I drop 
it, whatever the result may be, and go on to the 
next." It is success to meet misfortune valiantly; 
coming out of it with life unhurt, with new 
strength and courage for another effort. 

The forward look makes every day a new 
beginning, enables one to make every hour a new 
birth into life. What though we have failed and 
misfortunes have been heavy? 

Every day is a new beginning, 
Every morn is the world made new. 

You who are weary of sorrow and sinning, 
Here is a beautiful hope for you — 
A hope for me and a hope for you. 

But men will answer : " We have tried and 
failed. For a little while we have stemmed the 
tide, but have been swept away in the torrent. 
For a little while we have ridden the waves, only 
to be broken upon the rocks." For such is the 
message of the triumphant life; for those who 
have tried their own strength and found it weak. 
This is God's world. The principles of God alone 
shall ultimately prevail. Life can be triumphant 
only as it is united to God in purpose, in spirit, in 
character. God has made this union possible. 
He came into the world as the Christ, and lived 



[44] Urue TKHealtb 

among us the triumphant life. Through the 
Christ we too can live it. Saul of Tarsus tried 
and failed, until face to face he met the risen 
Christ. He took him as his ideal, the life of the 
Christ the pattern of his own, the work of the 
Christ his own fulfilment of the perfect law, then 
he was enabled to shout, " Thanks be to God who 
giveth us the victory." 

Because of the life and message of the Christ 
we can trust God as our Father and be content. 
Jesus met temptation, persecution, trial, and 
death, but he trusted God as his Father, was con- 
tent to do his will, and even upon the cross he tri- 
umphed. He lived above all these, and while his 
body was broken his spirit was untouched. It is 
said that in the mountains of Switzerland, the 
shepherd boy drives his flock far up the moun- 
tainside to escape the storm. The clouds gather 
thick beneath him, and pour out their torrents 
over all the land while he is basking in the sun- 
shine above them. He hears the roar of the thun- 
der, he sees the flashing of the lightning, he knows 
the fury of the storm; the earth beneath him is 
hidden, but the sky above him is clear, and his 
flock in safety feeds upon green pastures. Like 
the shepherd boy, we may live with the great 



Success Us] 

Master of life far up on the mountainside, un- 
touched by the storms that beat around our feet. 
Our triumph comes not in the stilling of the storm, 
but in being lifted above its fury. While we hear 
its threatenings we live above its power. God 
nowhere assures us that we shall triumph in 
earthly things, but he does assure us that we may 
triumph over earthly things and their power. 

It is an inspiration to know that for every 
temptation he has provided a way of escape, for 
every trial endured he has provided a reward. A 
Roman emperor rewarded one of his officers with 
a chain of gold equal in weight to the irons he 
had worn in the dungeon for the sake of the em- 
peror. Those who serve the Master best shall 
triumph not only here in the reward of an ap- 
proving conscience and the whisper of the still 
small voice of God commending the life that has 
been lived for the King, but those who shall stand 
before the throne, clothed in white garments, con- 
tent in the Master's service, with every suffering 
and sorrow and tear wiped away, are they that 
come out of the great tribulation. Each of us 
can do it. " In all these things we are more than 
conquerors through him that loved us." 

It matters not what your life has been, how 



[46] Urue TOlealtb 

many mistakes you have made, how many times 
you have failed ; begin now, you may be victorious 
in Christ. A friend once showed Ruskin a costly 
handkerchief upon which a blot of ink had been 
made. " It is spoiled. Nothing can be done with 
that," said the friend. Ruskin carried it away 
and in a little time sent it back again. In a most 
skilful and artistic way he had made a fine design 
in india ink, using the blot as a basis. The hand- 
kerchief was not spoiled; it was now, from the 
hands of that great master, more beautiful, more 
valuable than before. So God can take our 
broken and stained lives, and through the grace 
and love of Jesus Christ working in us, make 
them into lives of beauty and victory. David's 
grievous sin was not only forgiven, it was made 
a transforming power in his life. Peter's pitiful 
fall became a step upward that brought him 
nearer to the heart of the Christ. 

In a little book called " Life," E. S. Holloway 
repeats the story of the old organ in the cathedral 
at Fribourg. The old verger would show the 
people through the church and then he would 
climb to the organ-loft and play a few simple 
strains, all that he knew. One day when he did 
this a stranger followed him unseen. When the 



Success [47] 

simple old man had played his little strains, the 
young stranger stepped forward and asked, " May 
I play?" "No," the old man answered, "no 
stranger's hands are permitted to touch the 
organ; only the great master and myself are 
permitted to play." " But if you will let me play 
for a moment I will act under your direction, and 
it can do no harm." Reluctantly the old man 
consented, and the stranger sat down at the 
organ. Soon the melodies began to pour forth 
as from an unseen world, and all through the 
church the people stopped to listen to such music 
as they had never heard before. The old verger 
stood lost in wonder, as one who dreamed. When 
the music was ended the old man gasped, " Who 
are you?" The young man answered quietly, 
" I am Felix Mendelssohn." For years after- 
ward the old man would describe the beauties of 
the cathedral to its visitors, tell them of the organ, 
and then he would always say : " But you should 
have been here the day that Mendelssohn played. 
It seemed as if the very windows of heaven were 
opened, and such melodies and such symphonies 
as I never expected to hear this side of the eter- 
nal world poured forth from the old organ ; and, 
think of it, foolish man that I was, I almost pre- 



[48] TEtue TKHealtb 

vented that master of music from pouring forth 
his soul in the organ that day." 

So it may be Christ has entered the secret 
chamber of your heart, unseen he has stood by 
and listened with sympathy while you have tried 
to play your simple little strains, and now he 
pleads that you will but let him touch the keys of 
your soul and he will fill your life with music 
celestial; his life he will pour forth in you, 
through you, until all those around will stop to 
admire, not so much the instrument as the one 
who plays. Do not turn him away. Do not re- 
fuse the greatest blessing that can come to mortal 
man. He will change your life of discord into 
one of sweetest harmony, where love and joy 
and peace sing together. Your life shall be one 
of victory; death itself shall be only the opening 
of the portals into a more triumphant life. When 
this is done, though you may have been born in 
a borrowed manger, though you may sleep at 
last in a borrowed tomb, this will be success. 



lit) 



limit? 



r That they may have life, and may have it abundantly." 




IV 



IjESUS CHRIST came to earth not so 
much to tell men how to get to heaven, 
as to teach them how to bring heaven 
to earth. He came to teach men how to pro- 
duce in their own hearts the flowers of true hap- 
piness, how to see in their own skies the stars of 
everlasting hope and truth, how to keep alive in 
their own souls love and unselfishness and the 
power of communing with the Father of all, his 
Father, God. He came that men might learn the 
life of angels now; that they might live the abun- 
dant life. If there were no future, Christ pro- 
vides the only life that is worth while here. 
There is a vast difference between existence and 
life. The man whose hand is red exists ; the man 
whose heart is pure lives. Christ came not only 
as the bearer of a future reward, but he brought 
to men a present possibility. He came not only 
that men might be saved in the hour of death, but 
he came to save the people from their sins here 
and now. He came not only as a divine sacrifice, 

C5i] 



[5f] gtge TOflealtb 

but as an ideal of life. He lived that men might 
know what a human life can be ; he died that that 
life might be eternal. 

Life in All its Fulness 

was exemplified in Christ; life in all its fulness 
he offers to all. He was no ascetic. He was at 
home with the rich as well as the poor. He often 
shared the broken fragments with the multitudes, 
but he sometimes sat at banquets. He taught that 
the pure desires of the flesh should not be despised. 
He taught that the body is something more than 
the robes that cover it. He revealed the beauty 
of humility when it is clothed in purple ; the im- 
pressiveness of moderation when it sits at ban- 
quets; the delightfulness of simplicity when it 
dwells amid magnificence; the grandeur of gen- 
tleness when it exists in the powerful. But on the 
other hand, he revealed the kingliness of kings 
whose thrones are unknown ; the sweetness of the 
banquet in the poor man's home ; the magnificence 
of splendor that shines in simplicity; and the 
greatness of strength that is revealed in gentle- 
ness. 

In Christ not only is the physical life ex- 



Xttltttg [S3] 

panded and lifted above the limitations of sur- 
roundings, but the intellect and heart are lifted 
out of themselves. He saw pictures and heard 
music in the lilies of the field, the birds of the 
air, and the workmen at their toil. He who sees 
and appreciates is he whose life is rich. A man 
called wealthy said to a great painter, " I never 
saw a sunset like that." " Oh, but don't you wish 
you could?" was the answer. The painter was 
rich, the would-be purchaser had money and ex- 
istence. If we could but catch the spirit of the 
Christ, the spirit that would lift us up, the spirit 
of appreciation of the beauties of sight and sound, 
the spirit that sees in the lily a divine poem ; that 
hears in the laughing of the brook the music of 
heaven! Do not fancy that in taking Christ as 
Saviour you will immediately become a painter, 
a musician, or a poet. He will work no such 
miracle as that. But with Christ as ideal, the 
spirit of Christ the spirit of your life, your soul 
will be no longer content with mere existence, but 
body and mind and heart will be lifted up until 
they learn to live. The man who lives only for 
the material things of life is like the man who 
inherits a palace, and closing all the halls that are 
filled with pictures, closing all the rooms that are 



[54] ZErne Wealth 

filled with music, closing all the libraries that are 
filled with knowledge, closing the great dining- 
hall that is filled with luxuries, spends all his time 
in the kitchen eating dry bread from a corner 
table. Happy is the man who lives a useful life; 
but, alas, if his life is only useful! Happy is 
the man who succeeds in business; but, alas, if 
this is all ! 

How Does Christ Give the Abundant Life? 

He puts us in a new world. He reveals God. 
He unites the soul to God in a relation that is 
vital. He makes us true children of our heavenly 
Father and heirs of all his wealth. When the 
new world opens before us we hear God speak in 
every rock and flower. We are no longer crea- 
tures of circumstance, but we are divine beings, 
born of the Spirit of God and imbued with his 
nature. We are not taken out of earth's toil, but 
we are lifted above its drudgery. While the 
hands toil the heart may sing. While the body 
lives in a cottage the soul dwells in mansions. 
The world within is the real world; the world 
without takes all its beauty, all its value from 
that. 



Xmurg [55] 

Hillis somewhere repeats this story of the 
peasant's dream. " His humble cottage while he 
slept lifted up its thatched roof and became a 
noble mansion. The one room, and small, be- 
came many and vast. The little windows became 
arched and beautiful, looking out upon vast es- 
tates all his. The fireplace became an altar, o'er 
which hung seraphim. The chimney became a 
golden ladder, like that which Jacob saw, and 
his children, living and dead, passed like angels 
bringing treasure up and down." This is a 
picture of the abundant life. This is luxury that 
rises above its surroundings, as the snow-crowned 
mountain rises above the clouds into the eternal 
sunshine. 

You have seen the little child before its 
dreams have been crushed by the sordid mate- 
rialism of earth, living the ideal life. Her little 
playhouse is a real mansion. The grass-covered 
floor is a carpet of richest Brussels. The little 
trees that surround it are columns of marble and 
gold, and from their branches hang tapestries of 
untold wealth. The little girl is a lady, rich and 
grand, and she receives her guests with all the 
dignity of a queen. We smile at her innocent 
fancy, but it is a sad day when her dreams are 



[5£] Zxwc Wealth 

ended, and her life is bound up in the narrow 
bands of material things. But in the abundant 
life as revealed by Christ we may dream again. 
Dream? No; for the dreams of childhood have 
become realities, and we live in a new world of 
wealth and grandeur, because God is with us and 
we are his, and all that belongs to God is ours. 

Nothing is more tragic than a life which knows 
no ideal. Nothing can be more hopeless than a 
life that is satisfied with itself. The life that is 
rich to-day, but is ever reaching out for greater 
luxuries of heart and mind and soul, is the ideal 
life. This is what Sir Isaac Newton meant when 
he said : " I do not know how I may appear to 
other men, but to myself I seem as a child, play- 
ing upon the shore of the sea, finding now and 
then a shell a little brighter than the ordinary, 
while the great ocean of truth lies undiscovered 
before me." Christ the ideal is a rainbow of hope 
and promise that ever advances as we approach 
it. It ever beckons onward and upward; but 
some day we shall reach it and find the fabled 
treasure at its base. 

If you would find life at its best, its fullest and 
richest, take Christ into your life and then enter 
gladly into the life which he lived. He will bring 



Xumrg [57] 

you peace and pardon; he will cleanse you from 
the power of sin; he will lift you up above the 
materialism that dwarfs the soul; he will give 
you the wider vision; he will open your eyes to 
the beauties, your ears to the music of heaven. 
Do not let the vision depart; do not let the ideal 
die in your soul. The peasants of southern Rus- 
sia tell the story of an old woman who was at 
work in her house when the wise men of the East 
came by following the star. " Come with us," 
they said, " we are going to find the Christ so 
long looked for by men." " Not now," she re- 
plied, " I am not ready to go now, my work is 
not done ; but by and by I will follow on and find 
him with you." But when her work was done 
the wise men had gone, the star in the heavens 
had disappeared, and she never found the Sa- 
viour. The peasants of the Pyrenees have a beau- 
tiful legend of the Maladetta Mountain. Ice and 
snow cover its ragged sides and all is barren and 
dead. Once, they say, it was a rich pasture-land 
covered with grazing sheep. Christ came to 
visit the shepherds, but they threw stones at him 
and drove him away. Then the giant mountain 
was changed to a mass of rocks, and upon its 
cold and ice-bound sides all animals and men 



[58] Utue Mealtb 

died. Surely it is but a legend, born in the sim- 
ple peasant's mind, but it tells forcefully of the 
life from which the Christ has been turned away, 
the life in which the flowers of hope droop and 
die, the song of faith is hushed, the music of 
love is stilled, and the soul is barren and dead. 
Look not at the waves about you; fear not the 
rocks nor the storm; look up, steer by the stars, 
and as the wise men were led to the Bethlehem 
manger, you may enter the peaceful harbor and 
anchor from the storm. 

The harbor at last of the unknown land 

They entered one by one; 
And unloaded their treasures at the feet of the 
King, 

And he said unto them, " Well done." 

And never a word of the wandering way, 
For without it many gems they had passed ; 

And never a word of the storms and the rocks 
Spoke the King when they found him at last. 

But the treasures they'd brought grew large in his 
hand 

And silver was changed to gold; 
And he anchored those ships in the harbor of peace, 

And they wandered no more, I am told. 



D 



IRfsks 



' Nor life. 39 




V 



|NE of the finest passages in all Paul's 
letters is his triumphant shout of as- 
surance that nothing can separate the 
Christian from the love of Christ. Among many 
things tending to do this he mentions life, 
" Neither death nor life." We are not surprised 
that he should mention death. Death is a mys- 
tery. It is the opening of the door into the un- 
known. It carries us beyond our " Bourne of 
time and place " ; whither, when, how, we do not 
know. We are glad, therefore, that Paul assures 
us that death shall not separate us from the love 
of Christ. " 'Tis but to pierce the mist and 
then — how beautiful to be with God." But when 
he mentions life we are surprised. We were not 
expecting that. We had thought of life as a 
privilege, a blessing, the best gift from God; we 
had not thought of it as an evil or a temptation. 
Often we do allow life to become a temptation, 
a risk that threatens true success, perchance an 
evil. Because we have failed to realize the temp- 

[61] 



[62] zmc Weaitb 

tation that lurks in life and have unconsciously 
yielded to it, many have failed. 
The risk is greatest when 

Life is Misunderstood 

No man understands life, its purpose, its es- 
sence until he unites himself with the purposes 
of God. When men think of life as a time in 
which to get, a time for the indulgence of the 
sensual nature, or a time for pride and show, life 
becomes the greatest temptation men know. 

Life misunderstood is the greatest tempta- 
tion of the business man. He may think of life 
as existence, a time for getting. If his weights 
are light or his measurements short, he will smile 
and say, " A fellow must live." He will con- 
gratulate himself that the end justifies the means. 
If a man thinks of life only as a time for sen- 
sual pleasure, he will give his body and his soul 
to indulgence and sin, and will answer, " Life is 
short, a fellow must get the most out of it." If 
a man thinks the end of life is to live in a man- 
sion, to ride in an automobile, to be a "good 
fellow " in the most fashionable clubs, to provide 
in his home the most lavish entertainments, life 



TRIsftg [63] 

to that man has become such a temptation that he 
will grow rich in worldly goods by prostituting 
the trust placed in him by his fellow men. The 
man who thinks of life as continued existence, 
who thinks that the longer he stays on this earth 
the greater amount of life he will enjoy, makes of 
life a temptation. He will not give his means for 
the uplifting of men, for fear he will not have 
enough for self in the far-away future. He will 
not give himself for others, for fear it will sap 
his strength. He will become completely self- 
centered and will grow really dishonest as he 
provides for the exigencies of old age. His soul 
will be dwarfed and starved that the body may 
live. Seeking to save his life he will lose it; seek- 
ing to prolong his earthly existence he will forfeit 
its joy. 

The man who thinks of life as only a grind, its 
work as drudgery, its pleasures as empty, finds in 
life a risk. He turns from life in disgust and dis- 
appointment. He has lived only for self. The 
atmosphere around him has been vitiated, his 
vision has been blurred. Scientists affirm that if 
we could look at our own sun from outside the 
natural atmosphere that surrounds us, the sun 
itself would appear blue. 



[6 4 ] Uwe XPOleattb 

When Life is Understood 

it sometimes becomes a real danger. Life is first 
of all a time for service. It means the bearing of 
burdens, not only for ourselves but for others. It 
means the doing of work, not merely for self but 
for the world. It means a time in which we are 
to make the most of the talents, be they great or 
small, that God has given us, fitting ourselves for 
another and better service. This calls for 
strength, for steadfast purpose, for unflinching 
fidelity to the work in hand. We are weak, while 
the work before us piles mountain high. Our re- 
sources are few, while the needs around us are 
many and great. Prone we are in our weakness 
to shrink from the task God has put before us; 
prone we are to leave our work for others while 
we sit down with idle days. 

Wisdom is needed. Consider the responsi- 
bilities that may rest upon each act. Con- 
sider how small a thing may change the destiny 
of your life and the lives of many others. Sepa- 
rated by only a few feet upon the sides of the 
same mountain, two rivers rise in Europe, the 
Rhine and the Rhone. Only a little, it would seem 
accidental, slope of land causes one of them to 



TRigfeS [65] 

flow southward, to pour its waters into the Medi- 
terranean ; the other to flow northward, to empty 
at last into the North Sea. But the way these 
two rivers take has controlled the fate of races, 
has changed the history of nations, has molded the 
whole life of a continent. A look, a word, a smile 
or a frown, the turning of a hand, may change the 
eternal destiny of human souls. How great is 
the wisdom needed! Compare with this needed 
wisdom our ignorance. Think of our limited ex- 
periences and our immature judgments. Then 
consider too, the snares laid by the Evil One to 
draw our feet from the beaten paths, to lure us 
into danger and death. How many things look 
beautiful to the eye that are death to the soul ! 
Down in the Arabian Desert there lives a lizard 
the exact color of the sand. Even a man can 
scarcely detect it as it lies still in the sun. On 
either side of its mouth is a fold of skin of pale 
crimson hue. These folds the lizard blows out 
until they look like a small red flower that is com- 
mon in the desert. Insects, flies, and bees in quest 
of honey light upon this flower-looking object only 
to find themselves within the lizard's mouth, to be 
instantly destroyed. I do not know why God 
made such a creature, unless it was to give us 

E 



1661 Ztnc TKIlealtb 

an illustration of the devil and his methods. Is 
it strange that the apostle mentions life as one 
of the first things that tempt us, as one of the 
greatest risks we encounter? 

It requires more strength and steadfastness to 
live each day than it does to die when life is 
ended. In the time of hardship and sorrow, in 
the time of disappointment, when despair stands 
knocking at the heart's door, when trial and ap- 
parent defeat are upon us, the soul must be strong 
that does not waver. No less strong must it be 
in the hour of comfort and ease, when the stream 
flows our way, when the shores are lined with 
pleasure's flowers, when the star of hope is ra- 
diant, or the earth about us is flooded with the 
sunshine of success and victory; for then it is 
that the soul is prone to forget God, to draw 
away from his love and care, to depend upon 
its own strength — and fall. When men find 
themselves to be fortune's favorites the soul is 
easily forgotten and God's goodness is forgot- 
ten with it. 

It was because of all these things that Paul 
mentions life as a great risk. But in triumph he 
shouts that even life with all its trials and tempta- 
tions, defeats and victories, cannot separate man 



TRisfts [67] 

from the love of God in Christ. We may follow 
him for the loaves and fishes, we may hound him 
day and night, we may deny him at the testing- 
time, or we may condemn him unjustly and nail 
him to the cross, yet through it all the Christ still 
loves, still does he pray, " Father forgive/' 

There is no hope in life without the Christ with 
his message of love and immortality. He is the 
inspiration of millions of lives who do not name 
his name. When men say " To-morrow we die/' 
they will soon be saying, " Let us eat, drink, and 
be merry." That detestable and hated man whom 
Jack London calls the Sea Wolf, only lived his 
philosophy consistently. Many men accept by 
word of mouth his philosophy, but they dare not 
live it. 

Christ triumphed over life. Inspired by his 
example, led by his Spirit, we can follow him. 
He is wise enough to lead us, strong enough to 
save us, kind enough to pardon, good enough to 
forgive. We can live the life that Jesus lived, in 
him, with him, because of him. 

The little sharp vexations, 
And the briers that catch and fret — 

Why not take all to the Helper 
Who has never failed us yet? 



L68i ttwe Weattb 

Tell him about the heartache, 

And tell him the longings too; 
Tell him the baffled purpose 

When we scarce know what to do. 
Then, leaving all our weakness 

With the One divinely strong, 
Forget that we bore the burden, 

And carry away the song. 



IDU 



©ppottunitB 



What is your life?' 




VI 



HEN Xerxes stood before his vast 
army of three million men, the great- 
est army ever gathered, in that mo- 
ment when we would expect his heart to burst 
with pride, he broke into bitter tears. When 
they asked him why he wept, he answered, " Be- 
cause in a few years all of this vast host will be 
dead." When a Roman conqueror passed up 
the sacred way in triumph, the trophies of his 
conquest before him, his victorious legions 
around him, the excited populace greeting him 
with wild acclamation, the slave who stood behind 
him in his car of victory, holding above his head 
a golden wreath, was bidden to stoop often and 
whisper to him, " Remember that thou too art a 
man." Yet men live as if these present days 
should go on forever, as if others should come 
and go, but they should abide. 

Whether we would have it so or not, the life 
we live here is but a vapor that vanisheth away. 

[7i] 



[72] uvrxc Mealtb 

The supreme matter is, shall it vanish in the 
storm or the sunshine? Shall it be transformed 
into the black clouds that hide forever the visions 
of beauty, that pour out their torrents of an- 
guish and despair, the abiding-place of the thun- 
ders of conscience and the lightnings of remorse, 
or shall it melt away in the sunshine of the 
Father's smile, shall it unveil the beauties of his 
righteousness, the gem-set sky of peace bending 
over the fragrant blossoms of hopes attained, 
longings satisfied, and loves regained? It is for 
you and for me to answer. 
Life is 

An Opportunity for Learning 

It is the Father's school and all we are his 
pupils. Born into the world with natures warped 
and dwarfed by thousands of centuries of sin, we 
need time to learn the laws of nature and of 
nature's God. Just as the child must learn that 
if he puts his hand into the fire, the pain will be 
sharp and abiding, so too must each man learn 
by experience, no less real, that if he puts his 
hand into sin the pain will reach his heart and his 
soul will suffer long. We are here to learn that 



Opportunity [73] 

the right is good, that the wrong, however allur- 
ing, is always bad. 

Life is a school in which the warps and twists 
of conscience are to be taken away, in which the 
evil passions of the soul are to be eradicated, in 
which we are to be purified from sin. The lessons 
are not always easy nor are they learned quickly. 
Long and hot is the furnace that transforms the 
crude iron into finest steel. Long and hot is the 
fire that burns out all dross and leaves the pure 
silver and gold. Fast flies the shuttle between the 
two extremes of the loom, carrying the thread, 
now white, now black, but in the end the finished 
pattern is beautiful. Through mingled sorrow 
and joy the soul climbs upward until it learns the 
Father's will, and all sin is taken away in the 
crucible of its experience. 

Life is a school in which we learn our own in- 
sufficiency and our dependence upon God. Our 
plans break and perish, but through it all we learn 
that God is wise. Our hopes fail and our efforts 
prove fruitless, but through it all we learn that 
God is good. Our passions conquer and our sins 
blind us, until we learn that God is merciful and 
mighty. With God as teacher, we are made ready 
for citizenship in that other world where God is 



[74] XTrue Mealtb 

truly King. Every experience is a lesson ; happy 
are we if we learn it. 
Life is 

An Opportunity for Development 

The golden age is yet before us. Where is the 
place for development? In your own home, 
where you may grow sweet and gentle and help- 
ful. In the school, where you may grow wise 
and broad and charitable. In the hospital, where 
you may grow sympathetic and cheerful and 
thankful. In your business, where you may grow 
careful and honest and true. In your life among 
men, where you may grow courageous, command- 
ing, and strong. In the church, where you may 
grow peaceful and prayerful and trustful. In 
your own department of God's service, where you 
may lead and train and triumph. Where are the 
opportunities for the development of the soul? 
Open your eyes and behold them; open your 
hands and receive. How many have gone 
through this life, the soul perishing for food and 
development, crying aloud for opportunity, when 
all around them opportunities were waiting! 

Life is 



©ppottanitg [7s] 

An Opportunity for Service 

This opportunity was never so big, so vast as 
it is now. In no age have the multitudes been so 
great or their needs so pressing. These needs can 
be met only by the men and women who have 
learned the secret of the true life and can bring 
its message to the world. There is nothing else 
in life so sublime as to work for the welfare of 
men, for as we serve God's little ones we serve 
him. It was this that called out all the energies 
and enthusiasm of Jesus, as he declared : " We 
must work the works of him that sent me, while 
it is day; the night cometh, when no man can 
work." When the inspired writer would sum up 
the life of the Master he could do it in no better 
words than these, " Jesus of Nazareth went about 
doing good." 

The greatest reward of service is the privilege 
of glorifying our Father. We can serve his 
world best by being true to him, The supreme 
thing is to be, and the doing will fellow of itself. 
To be honest in thought and deed ; to be pure and 
true in the midst of perversity and sin ; to be brave 
and strong in the midst of temptation and evil ; to 
live triumphantly when doubt and perplexity are 



[76] xrrue Wealtb 

battling for a resting-place in the heart, these are 
the greatest things to do, these are life at its best. 
The days of dying for Christ are largely past, 
but the days of living for Christ were never so 
plentiful as now. We may fight well our battles 
and men may never know, we may never hear 
their applause, but our Father knows and Jesus 
knows, the angels of heaven are bending low to 
see how the battle goes in our heart to-day ; per- 
haps the loved ones who have gone on before are 
watching too. " Therefore . . . seeing we are 
compassed about with so great a cloud of wit- 
nesses/' let us live well to-day. 
Life is 

An Opportunity to be True 

Life is not a dream, it is not a pleasure court, 
it is not a forum where men contend for the prize, 
though some do make it so. Life is a golden 
treasure entrusted to us from our Father's hand. 
Let us not hide it in the dirt nor wrap it in a nap- 
kin, but let us increase it many fold. Our talents, 
great or small, are not playthings to be discarded 
at will, but are golden vessels which we are to 
keep until they are weighed again before our 



©ppottunttg [77] 

great High Priest in the new-built temple of the 
Holy City. 

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. 

Life! The richest gift of an all-possessing 
God! How he has honored us by placing life 
within our keeping! Shall we fail him by de- 
grading life in selfish passion and wasted years, 
or shall we honor him by making that life true, 
manly, noble, godlike? Shall we go on gather- 
ing the sticks and straws of the world, or shall 
we look up and take the proffered crown from the 
angel's hand? Life is more than an empty holi- 
day, more than a struggle for wealth. How many 
of us, like condemned Chinese, choke ourselves 
with gold or strangle the life with silver! In 
southern Africa and in Nevada there are many 
rivers which, proceeding from the mountains, 
flow broad and deep in the beginning, but be- 
come narrower and shallower the farther they 
run, wasting themselves by soaking into the sand 
along the way until at last they cease entirely. 
How many lives there are that permit them- 
selves to be completely absorbed by the sands of 



frsj Utue Wealtb 

earth! The true life is like the river that leaps 
from the rock in the distant mountain, through 
canon and over cascade, pushes on, gathering 
strength and volume from every rivulet along the 
way, nourishing the tree and the flower and the 
abounding fields, turning the wheels of the mills 
of men, yet growing ever broad and deep, until 
it bears upon its placid bosom the navies of the 
nations, and disappears at last by mingling with 
the great ocean, whence it came. 

Would you know the true life? Jesus lived 
it. Would you receive the true life? Jesus gives 
it. Would you live the true life? Jesus in- 
spires it. You will never know what life means 
until you clasp hands with him. John Ericsson 
and Ole Bull were boys together. The one be- 
came a skilled mechanic and inventor, the other 
a great musician. Years afterward, when Ole 
Bull was on one of his concert tours, he found 
himself in the city of his old-time friend. He 
sent to him tickets, with an urgent and loving in- 
vitation that he come to his concerts and hear 
him play. John Ericsson refused to hear him 
play, for he was busy with his inventions and he 
had no taste nor time for music. The next 
morning Ole Bull took his violin in his hand 



©ppottunitg [79] 

and went out to find his friend. He found the 
great man in his workshop. Taking the violin 
from its case he said : " Mr. Ericsson, there is 
something the matter with this violin. I wish 
you would examine it." Ericsson took the 
violin and looked it over mechanically, carefully ; 
together they examined it and talked of wood 
fibers and tones, Ole Bull sounding a note now 
and then, until before Ericsson knew, the great 
master had drawn the bow across the strings and 
begun to play. Ericsson became uneasy, then 
attentive, then entranced. When at last Ole 
Bull dropped the bow, Ericsson, with tears 
streaming down his face, cried out : " Play on, 
play on, I never knew what was lacking in my 
life before!" You who have no taste for the 
beautiful, the true, and the good, with no satis- 
faction anywhere in life, let the Christ but touch 
the strings of your heart and your soul will be 
flooded with music celestial, and through your 
tears of thanksgiving you will cry : " Play on, 
great Master, play on! I never knew what was 
lacking in my life before." 

The life that passeth like a vapor can be made 
permanent. The life that is transient may be- 
come abiding. The clouds may have settled 



[so] urue Mealtb 

dark and thick around your life, but one touch 
of the divine hand can brush them all away and 
the soul shall stand out pure, majestic, sun- 
crowned, eternal. It is for every one who will 
say " I will." 



IDU1F 



Stability 



1 1 give unto them eternal life." 




VII 



PON one of the great arches of the 
cathedral at Milan are inscribed these 
words, " All that pleases is but for a 
moment," and over them is carved a wreath of 
beautiful roses. On another arch the words are 
written, " All that which troubles is but for 
a moment." and over these appears the cross. 
But over the greatest arch, the central entrance 
of the cathedral, stand out the words, " That 
only is important which is eternal." They would 
say to all those who would come within those 
walls, flushed with petty successes, dazzled by 
the tinsel and the gauze of the stage where sen- 
sual pleasures play their little parts : " It is not 
real; in the morning you shall wake and they 
shall be forgotten, and you will be forgotten with 
them." They would say to all those who come 
to those doors, burdened with care and grief, 
heavy w 7 ith sorrow and toil and suffering : " Be 
of good cheer ; it is not long. Open the shutters 
of your heart. In the morning you shall wake, 

[«3] 



[34] XEtue XPSIealtb 

your soul will be flooded with the sunshine of 
peace, and the storm will have passed." They 
would say to all those who come to those doors, 
consecrated to noble purposes and lofty ideals, 
battling for purity and right and truth : " Look 
up, press on, it shall endure. You too shall wake 
and hear the triumphant song. You have 
chosen the better part, it shall not be taken from 
you. This is the life eternal; this shall endure." 

When is the Life Eternal? 

Men say, " It is too far away. It is indefi- 
nite; it is unseen"; for men are but children 
overgrown. The little child would rather have 
a tinsel ball to-day than a gem of gold to-mor- 
row. But the life eternal is not alone in the 
future. If it is ever to be it must begin here and 
now. The Master did not say : " Sometime, 
somewhere, in the far away, I shall give unto 
them eternal life," but " My sheep hear my voice, 
and I know them, and they follow me; and I 
give unto them eternal life." It is a present 
thing, a present possibility for every individual. 
It is not far away, it is at hand. Eternity is now. 
Every day, every hour is a part of it. Would you 



Stability [85] 

wait with idle days until this life is past and 
then expect eternity to begin ? 

So here hath been dawning another blue day; 
Think, wilt thou let it slip useless away? 
Out of Eternity this new day is born; 
Into Eternity at Right will return. 
Behold it aforetime no eye ever did; 
So soon it forever from all eyes is hid. 
Here hath been dawning another blue day; 
Think, wilt thou let it slip useless away? 

This life is unending. Sometimes we say this 
life will soon be past and another will come. It 
is untrue. This life shall never end. The body 
may perish, the soul may go into another sphere 
of activity, but the life already lived shall go on. 
It matters not whether it be good or bad, every 
act is for eternity and it shall live. What a 
short tube a cannon is, but the enemy miles away 
is under its power. A clay mold is a fragile 
thing, a child's hands may crush it, but for ages 
does it live to gladden the hearts of men in the 
metal that it once clasped but for a moment. The 
photographer's plate may be exposed to the light 
only a second and soon be broken and lost, but 
it still lives in the beautiful image which the sol- 
dier lad carries close to his heart, the picture that 
steels his arm for the battle five thousand miles 



[86] xrrue Wealtb 

Twowmwin iniiiiwiii i m i i ■ ■ii—iiwifiiim ■■■■■■■ ■hiiiii i bii i ihmihwiwiwii iiih i ■ 

away. That little picture may keep his life true 
and brave long after the sweet face is gone and 
he sees it no more. How frail a thing is the little 
flower, its life is but a day! But a soldier boy 
who fought under Wellington, leaving the dear 
old home in England, received from the hand of 
his sweetheart a little bunch of forget-me-nots. 
They faded and died, but he cherished them until 
long after upon the field of Waterloo he fell. 
From his torn jacket there fell out upon the 
ground some of the ripened seeds of the little 
flower, and they lived again and again until now, 
we are told, all the field of Waterloo is carpeted 
with the sweet and fragrant faces of the for- 
get-me-not. The life you live to-day, the word, 
the deed, the unconscious influence, the secret 
thought, shall never die. This is eternity. 

What is the Life Eternal? 

When the Master said, " I give unto them eter- 
nal life," did he mean only ceaseless existence? 
If so, we all have that. Some men wish they 
had it not. No; he meant that which makes the 
present life eternal in its significance, eternal 
because it is wide and deep and high; eternal 



StablUtg [87] 

because God is its center. It acts from a motive 
that is eternal in its purpose. When the young 
man came to Jesus and asked what good thing he 
should do that he might inherit eternal life, the 
Master taught him that eternal life is not gained 
by putting on new acts or virtues as one might 
put on new garments, but it is gained by molding 
the life according to a new purpose. Men once 
believed the earth to be the center of the universe. 
The sky was but a roof to cover it. Now we know 
the earth is but a tiny particle in a great system 
of worlds. But while our earth has grown small, 
it has at the same time grown large, for it has be- 
come a part of the great universe of whose limits 
the mind can form no conception. When man 
realizes that God is Master, King, and Father, he 
grows small, but he grows large for he becomes 
a part of an infinite whole, his life becomes of 
all but infinite value, his soul becomes eternal, 
his possibilities unlimited. The life eternal de- 
pends upon the point of view. If one sees no 
farther than his own narrow surroundings, if he 
sees no farther than to-day, life is dwarfed and 
mean ; but if he lives high above the sordid things 
of earth he sees the sweetness and the joy of life 
everywhere. 



[88] xztuc Kflealtb 

"How stupid life is," said the mole. 
"This earth is a dull, dirty hole. 
I eat, I dig, and I store; 
But I find it all a bore ! " 

The lark sang high in the blue : 

" How sweet is the morning dew. 

How clear the brooks, how fair the flowers; 

I rejoice in this world of ours!" 

Eternal life here is manifested by those who 
live like the lark, high enough to see and appre- 
ciate all of earth's beauties, close enough to the 
sky to breathe an atmosphere that is clear and 
sweet and pure; high enough to see heaven's 
beauties and rejoice in them now. 

Walking one day by the seashore when the tide 
had ebbed away, a tourist writes that he found a 
beautiful spring gushing up from the sand. Ta- 
king his cup he drank from its waters, finding 
them clear and sweet as ever leaped from sunny 
hillside. But soon the tide came in again, pour- 
ing its frothy surf over the little spring, burying 
it far out of sight. He thought what a pity it 
was that the little spring should be spoiled and 
made brackish. When the tide had flowed back 
again the tourist came and found the little spring 
as before. He tasted to see if the salt waves had 
left their brackishness in its waters, but they were 



Stability [89] 

flowing sweet and pure as before. And then he 
knew that all this time they had been flowing 
sweet and pure, even while the waves were dash- 
ing over them. No bitterness crept into the little 
spring, for it was always pushed back by its con- 
stant flow; for it had its source, not in the salt- 
soaked sand, but far away among the pure white 
crowns of the eternal mountains. Eternal life 
here is that life that flows sweet and pure, un- 
hindered, unspoiled by any waves that break over 
it, because it has its source, not in the earth upon 
which it appears, but far away in those regions, 
yes, in that One who is eternal. The life that has 
its source in the Eternal is not broken by the dis- 
appointments of earth. It is not hindered by life's 
toil. It knows that the Father is true, that the 
soul shall live, and burdens are lifted. 

It is not the work but the worry 

That makes the world grow old, 
That numbers the years of its children, 

Ere half their story is told; 
That weakens their faith in heaven 

And the wisdom of God's great plan; 
Ah! 'tis not the work but the worry 

That breaks the heart of man. 

The eternal life here is the one that is broad 
enough to touch other lives and impart to them 
its strength and power. Its keynote is love. This 



[go] Urue Wealth 

is the first and greatest commandment, the best of 
life's graces, " the greatest thing in the world," 
because it is the foundation upon which rests the 
life eternal It is manifested in sympathy and 
service — sympathy with men in joy and sorrow, 
service with men, for men. It is seen in the life 
that overflows and nourishes other lives. Why 
do we make our lives narrow by keeping our sym- 
pathy and our appreciation until men are gone ? 

Why do we grudge our sweets so to the living, 
Who, God knows, find at best too much of gall, 

And then, with generous, open hands, kneel, giving 
Unto the dead our all? 

What do the dead care for the tender token, 
The love, the praise, the floral offerings? 

But palpitating, living hearts are broken 
For want of just these things. 

It cannot be feigned. If the life has not been 
made eternal by the touch of the Divine it cannot 
touch others by feigned sympathy and love. 

At morn she tuned her harp to heavenly thought, 
And the restless throng with hurrying feet passed on, 
And none were found to turn a listening ear. 

At night she stretched her heart-strings 'cross a lute, 
And when the wearied crowd came back, the 

Tired feet were tangled in the mesh of song, 

And stayed to learn of life, and love, and hope. 

In the life eternal sympathy is always accom- 
panied by service. Long ago when the world w 7 as 



Stability [91] 

young these two were wedded, and ever since 
they have walked hand in hand. It calls for 
courage and strength. We may not always see 
the result, not always rejoice in the reward. It 
is enough to know that the Father knows, that 
no moment of service will be lost. Have you 
seen the gentleman's horse prancing down the 
boulevard, with shining coat and jeweled harness, 
admired by all who see him? Service to him is 
easy. If you could be like that! But have you 
seen that other horse covered with dust and 
sweat, tramping his narrow circle round and 
round all day, seeing nothing but the dust beneath 
his feet, feeling nothing but the pressure of the 
harness and the sting of the lash, hearing nothing 
but the driver's voice? You would not be like 
that ! Ah, but if the horse could only know that 
while he toils in his little circle, down there by 
the river-bed the great rocks are being lifted to 
be built into the mansion or the hall of state that 
shall stand for ages after the shining coach and 
those who ride have been forgotten ! 

Life is mostly froth and bubble; 

Two things stand like stone: 
Kindness in another's trouble, 

Courage in your own. 



[92] Zxuc TKHealtb 

How is the Life Eternal? 

How shall we have it now ? It cannot be ob- 
tained by effort, it is the gift of Christ. Having 
him, we have life. When he is ours we are sons 
of God and find ourselves in a new world that is 
eternal. When he is our ideal our lives become 
deep and wide with sympathy, love, and service. 
When he is our King our universe becomes large 
and we become a part of the kingdom that is eter- 
nal. When we know him we know the Father in 
him. " And this is life eternal, that they should 
know thee the only true God, and him whom thou 
didst send, even Jesus Christ." A perfect knowl- 
edge is not required. The Greek verb is pro- 
gressive. It means a partial knowledge now and 
points to a perfect knowledge hereafter. 

Do not mistake the life eternal. It is not found 
in the things that are born of earth. These very 
things may destroy it. Compare two lives if you 
will and answer which of the two was eternal. 
Byron, one of the greatest poets, with all pleasure 
and fame that men could give ; Byron, whom the 
world envied and whose radiant genius only made 
him more powerful for evil, at the early age of 
thirty-six sang his farewell to the world : 



Stability [93] 

My days are in their yellow leaf; 

The flower and fruit of love is gone; 
The worm, the canker, and the grief 

Are mine alone. 

Compare with this life that of him who was 
driven from place to place, shorn of this world's 
goods, hissed and mocked, stoned and beaten and 
imprisoned, dying at last the death of a martyr, — 
Paul of Tarsus, who was loyal to the right; hear 
him shout with his dying breath : " I have fought 
the good fight, . . I have kept the faith; hence- 
forth there is laid up for me the crown ! " Which 
life was eternal ? 

Do not wait. It is the gift of the Christ, but 
you must reach out your hand if you would re- 
ceive. It will be what you make it. 

Life is a leaf of paper white 
Whereon each one of us may write 
His word or two and then comes night. 

The life eternal finds its perfect fulfilment, of 
course, in the future. But we must live to-day if 
we would hope to live to-morrow. If we ride 
well the sea of life to-day, we shall meet our 
" Pilot face to face, When we have crossed the 
bar." 



vm 



Dissolution 



"Death is swallowed up in victory; 1 




VIII 



HAT is death? We have all seen it; 
we have felt its power. It has come 
into our homes and robbed us of our 
treasures and broken our plans and destroyed 
our hopes. We have stood beside the open grave 
and felt that our hearts had been torn from our 
breasts, and that they were now lying within the 
grave with those whom we have loved and lost. 
Then we have come away and left them there. 
How dark would be an hour like this if that 
which men call death were the end of life! No 
rift would break the clouds through which one 
ray of light might shine; we would grope in the 
darkness of an unending night, night without a 
star. No sound would come to us save the lonely 
voice crying out of the midnight, the voice of 
despair. Only one word would be written across 
the horizon of our lives — loss. 

But in the hour of death, calm and clear do we 

hear the words as they fall from the lips of the 

Master, " I am the resurrection and the life : he 

G [97] 



[98] TEnxe TKftealtb 

that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he 
live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on me 
shall never die." The words seem hard to be- 
lieve, so we follow the Master who spoke them, 
follow him to Gethsemane and the judgment hall 
of Pilate, follow him to Calvary and to the rock- 
hewn tomb in Joseph's garden, and there upon 
the morning of the third day the grave is empty, 
the risen Christ stands before us with the print of 
the nails in his hands and in his feet, and again he 
is saying, " It is I, be not afraid," and we know 
that which we have called death is not the end. 
The clouds are broken, and even in the hour of 
death the sunshine of his love floods the world. 
The wailing cry of despair is hushed, and we 
hear the music of the angels as the doors of 
heaven are thrown open that our loved ones may 
enter. Though the heart still breaks because we 
have lost, the sorrow is sweetened with joy, 
for we know that they have gained. No longer 
do we leave our hearts in the grave, but they 
have been lifted up into the heavenly realms and 
we know that they are in the keeping, safe, of 
those who kept them here for a little while, and 
some day we shall find them there in the presence 
of the King. 



g)jggolutton [99] 

Then what is death ? There is no answer save 
the answer given by the Christ and those who 
knew him best. 

Death is a Sleep 

One day Jairus, a ruler of a synagogue, came 
to Jesus and asked that he would come and lay 
his hands upon a little twelve-year-old girl who 
was dying and make her well. As they went on 
their way they met those from the ruler's house, 
who said to him, Your daughter is dead; do not 
trouble the Teacher any further. Jesus said to 
him, Do not be afraid, believe. When they came 
to the house and found the people weeping, Jesus 
said, Why do you weep in an hour like this? 
" The child is not dead, but sleepeth." They 
laughed him to scorn, for they knew the child was 
dead. Then to prove to them that death is not 
the end, that death is only a sleep in which the 
poor tired body rests, Jesus took her by the hand, 
spoke to her, and she arose and was well. 

When they came to Jesus and told him that 
Lazarus, whom he loved, was sick, Jesus re- 
mained where he was for a few days, and then 
said to his disciples, " Our friend Lazarus is 



[ioo] Urue Wealtb 

fallen asleep ; but I go, that I may awake him out 
of sleep." Truly he was dead, but death is only 
a sleep. 

In the record that tells of the stoning of Ste- 
phen, the first martyr of the young church, the 
historian reaches the climax of the story of that 
glorious death when he says that Stephen, having 
kneeled and prayed that God would not lay the 
sin to the charge of those who were killing him, 
fell asleep. Paul, speaking of the contrast be- 
tween the living and the dead, said, " We shall 
not all sleep." 

What did they mean ? They meant, first of all, 
that death is not the end. If death is a sleep, we 
expect an awakening. But did they mean by call- 
ing death a sleep that when our loved ones die 
the soul ceases its activity, consciousness is no 
more, and that the person who sleeps knows not 
and is not known until the last day when the 
Christ shall come and awake him out of his 
sleep? That would not be sleep, that would be 
death from which there could be no awakening. 
If the spirit ceased from consciousness, that 
would be annihilation, not sleep. In sleep the soul 
does not cease from consciousness nor activity; 
only the body rests, Not only is the soul active, 



Biggoltttion [iqi] 

but repeatedly does it express itself through the 
tired brain even in sleep. Jesus told the re- 
pentant thief on the cross beside him that he 
would be with him in paradise that day, only the 
body would lie inactive in the tomb, asleep; the 
spirit would be enjoying its reward in the pres- 
ence of God. If the spirit of Lazarus had slept, 
the voice of Jesus would have been unheard and 
the body would have remained in the tomb. 

But death is more than a sleep. Sleep speaks 
only of the inactivity of the body for a time, it 
says nothing of the spirit. 

Death is an Exodus 

Luke tells that the day Jesus took some of 
his disciples and went up on the mountain and 
was there transfigured before them, there ap- 
peared unto them Moses and Elijah, who talked 
with him about his departure which he was about 
to accomplish at Jerusalem. But the word which 
Luke used, and is usually translated decease or 
departure, is the Greek word Exodos, which be- 
ing merely transferred is our word exodus. 
Death, then, is an exodus, a going out, a de- 
parture. Peter uses the same word when he 



[log] Zvrxc TOlealtb 

writes concerning his death, which he knows is 
fast approaching : " I will give diligence that at 
every time ye may be able after my exodus to call 
these things to remembrance." 

We know what Peter and every Jew had in 
mind when he spoke of an exodus. There arose 
in their mind a picture of that day when Israel, 
following the dauntless Moses, turned their backs 
upon Egypt and its sin, broke the shackles of 
slavery that had long bound them, threw off the 
hand of the oppressor that had hindered them, 
and went out into a new land of freedom, went 
out to find the Land of Promise, the land for 
which their hearts had been longing through the 
centuries. 

Death is an exodus. A going out from the old 
life of sin and slavery and drudgery. A going 
out from a life of limitation, from a life of pain 
and sorrow, from a life of hindered opportunity. 
Death is a departure into a life of liberty and holi- 
ness, a life of opportunity and power and wealth ; 
a life that has been long promised and for which 
the soul has been longing through the years. The 
exodus was to the Jew the birthday of his na- 
tion's life and hope. Death is the birthday of the 
true life ; the commencement day of the Father's 



2)iggolution [103] 

school; an entrance into a wider, greater work 
for which the soul has been prepared. A de- 
parture ! An escape ! 

Behind, the soul hears time's iron gates 
close faintly, 

It is now far from them. 
For it has reached the city of the saintly, 

The new Jerusalem. 

Death is an Unmooring 

Paul writing to Timothy, his son in the faith, 
of his approaching death, did it in these words : 
" I am already being poured out as a drink- 
offering, and the time of my unmooring is come." 
The translation says, " The time of my depart- 
ure." But the word which Paul used means an 
unloosing, an untying of ropes. It was used 
technically of the unmooring of a ship that was 
about to sail. Because the unmooring of a ship 
came at the time of its departure, the word came 
by accommodation to mean " departure." This is 
the word Paul chooses when speaking of his own 
death. He declares that death will be a time of 
unmooring, a loosing of the ropes, a going out 
upon the wide sea. 

When the great ship has lain for days, perhaps 



[iQ4] Ztue Wealth 

weeks, in the harbor preparing for its long jour- 
ney, loading with treasure for another port be- 
yond the sea, treasure not to keep, but treasure to 
lay down at the end of the journey to receive in 
return a greater, richer treasure, when the great 
ship has lain for weeks impatiently tugging at the 
cables that hold it, impatient for the sea, there 
comes at last a day of unmooring, when the cables 
are cast off, when the anchors are lifted, when 
there is joy on board, and the great ship goes out 
from the confined harbor; the shore lines fade 
from view, and it sails upon the great sea in 
search of the lands beyond. 

This is death. The human soul that has been 
held like the ship, restless for the sea, held while 
it gathered treasure to lay at the feet of the King 
on the other side of the sea and receive from his 
hand treasure yet unknown, comes at last to the 
day of the unmooring. The cords that have 
bound it to the shore of time are unloosed. 
The anchors are raised, and the soul goes out 
from the little narrow harbor of earthly life, out 
to find the unknown land where there will be 
gathered the treasures of knowledge and riches 
and holiness and joy. An unknown land ? Yes ; 
but the chart is true and we steer by the stars. It 



2)iggoItttion [105] 

was of the unmooring that the great poet thought 
when he sang : 

Sunset and evening star, 

And one clear call for me! 
And may there be no moaning of the bar, 

When I put out to sea. 

But such a tide as moving seems asleep, 
Too full for sound and foam, 

When that which drew from out the 
boundless deep 
Turns again home. 

Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark ! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell, 

When I embark; 

For tho' from out our bourne of Time 
and Place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to meet my Pilot face to face 

When I have crost the bar. 



Death is a Home-going 

The last night before he died, when the disci- 
ples were troubled and afraid, Jesus said : " Let 
not your heart be troubled. . . In my Father's 
house are many abiding-places. . . I go to pre- 
pare a place for you. And if I go and prepare 
a place for you, I come again, and will receive 



[iq6] ZEme Wealtb 

you unto myself; that where I am ye may be also. 
And whither I go, ye know the way." 

This earth is not our real home. It is only a 
temporary abiding-place. Home is where our 
Father is ; where our Brother is ; where our loved 
ones are. Our friends may enjoy a visit from us 
now and then, but they would be very foolish to 
keep us from going home. 

Death, says Jesus, is a home-going. He said 
he was going home to his Father's house to pre- 
pare a place for us. When he comes again for us 
we too shall go home; home where there is an 
abiding-place that shall not pass away, a home in 
the city that hath the foundations whose builder 
and maker is God. 

There has never lived a race of men who be- 
lieved that death is the end, though they have not 
always known what lay beyond. Through the 
ages the cry of the human heart has gone out : 

Thou wilt not leave us in the dust, 
Thou madest man, he knows not why; 
He thinks he was not made to die. 

And thou hast made him, thou art just. 

But to-day we know what death is. We can 
cry with that one of old : " O death, where is thy 
sting? O grave, where is thy victory? " 



n 



profit 



"A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the 
things which he possesseth" 




IX 



|OW much are you worth? It is a 
startling commentary upon our civili- 
zation that when we hear the question 
we think at once of money or houses or lands. 
None of these things really enter into the answer. 
" A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of 
the things which he possesseth." Some men pos- 
sess thousands of dollars who are not worth five 
cents. When Jesus drew a picture of a fool, he 
painted a man wiio had great material posses- 
sions and thought he needed nothing more. He 
was not a fool because he was rich; he was a 
fool because he was poor and knew it not. Some 
men own money, but this man's money owned 
him. " Wealth is the slave of a wise man, the 
master of a fool." 

What a man is worth will depend upon what 
he believes to be the supreme end and purpose 
of life; what he believes to be the highest good. 
If a man believes money to be the best thing on 
earth, he will become avaricious and will starve 

[109] 



[no] XLtrxc Mealtb 

his body and his soul, while he robs, legally or il- 
legally, his fellow men. If a man believes honor 
is the supreme good, he will become ambitious 
and he will climb the ladder of fame, even though 
he must plant his feet upon the necks of his fel- 
low men. If a man believes pleasure to be the 
best thing that can be obtained, he will give him- 
self to brutal indulgence, even though he des- 
troys the lives and blackens the souls of others 
with his own. 

When the disciples were quarreling as to who 
should be greatest in the coming kingdom, Jesus 
told them it should be the one who served the 
most. According to the standards of Jesus, the 
only answer to the question, How much are you 
worth? is the answer to the other question, How 
much do you serve ? A man might fall heir to a 
million dollars and never be worth a dime to his 
family, to his community, to the world, nor even 
to himself. 

A man's worth may be computed by material 
things. But they must be the material things 
which he produces, not the material things that 
he consumes upon himself. One answer, then, 
to the question of your worth, is the answer to 
the question — 



profit [hi] 

How much Material do You Produce? 

This is one way to serve the world. Many 
do not know it, but this is the easiest way, though 
it is not always the most pleasant. This is the 
simplest way to determine the worth of any- 
thing. If you ask the worth of a machine, you 
expect the answer to tell you how much of the 
material necessities of life that machine will 
produce. If you ask the worth of a horse, you 
expect the answer to tell how much work he can 
do. If a man would buy a slave, the value of the 
slave would be determined by his ability to serve. 

A man might be such that his value to society, 
to the world, would be determined solely by the 
physical labor which he performed. Any man 
who works with his hands — the farmer, the me- 
chanic, the man who digs the ditch — is a man who 
produces something which the world needs; and 
other things not hindering, he is worth some- 
thing to the world. He may think himself insig- 
nificant, but he may be worth more than the mil- 
lionaire who rides by in his automobile. The ex- 
treme Socialist considers only " the man in the 
overalls " of any worth, since he is the only man 
who produces anything material directly. A 



[H2] ZEme Xlfllealtb 

child can see the mistake, but the fact is that 
every man who works with his hands, who does 
a part of the world's work, is of value. 

All honor to the man who works with his 
hands! His work is honorable. The more 
skilled he is the more noble is his work. But this 
is the lowest form of service ; not lowest in honor, 
but least in real service. To make this form of 
service supreme would be to put man on a level 
with the machine or the horse. If manhood is to 
be determined by the amount of physical strength 
expended, the horse that pulls the dray is worth 
more than you or I. 

A man's worth may be determined by the 
strength of the arm with which he serves the 
world. He may serve in no other way and yet be 
of value. But there is a better way. One may 
serve the world with the strength of the brain. 
Then the deciding question will be — 

How much Knowledge have You Imparted? 

The man who works with his brain does a 
more important work than the man who works 
only with his hands. The man who bends at his 
desk until the brain sweats ; the man whose mind 



profit [113] 

labors in travail until there is born into the world 
a new invention, is one of earth's noblemen. 
Who can estimate the worth to the world of 
Howe, from whose mind was born the sewing- 
machine; of Watt, who gave to the world the 
power of steam; of Edison, who has harnessed 
the lightning until it pushes our machinery and 
lights our houses and cooks our meals; of Mar- 
coni, from whose brain emerged the wireless tele- 
graph ? 

Not only does the man who labors with his 
brain produce more in a material way than the 
man who labors only with his hands, but he adds 
to the power of man as man; he adds to that 
which distinguishes man from the brute. The 
teacher who serves with his mind and trains our 
children to think, the lecturer who teaches the 
multitude, the author whose mind flows from his 
pen to enlighten the world, the mother in the 
home who gives her time and strength in teaching 
the little ones the foundation of truth and service, 
these are they who serve with the brain and the 
world has never yet measured their worth. Few of 
these ever accumulate money; those who serve 
with the brain are the poorest paid of all earth's 
toiling children, but it is because of these that the 

H 



[n4] Uxrxc Wealtb 

world is different to-day from what it was a thou- 
sand years ago. How much are you w r orth? It 
may be determined only by the strength of the 
brain with which you serve the world. 

But there is a higher and better way to serve 
the world than these. There is a method toward 
which these are only steps along the way. We 
may serve by the strength of the heart. 

How much Happiness have You Imparted? 

God meant that men should be happy. No man 
can fulfil his mission as one made in the image of 
God, who is not happy and who does not impart 
happiness to others. The one who toils with his 
hands or his brain or his heart that others may 
be happy is of real worth to the world. 

The one who imparts the most happiness to the 
world is not usually the one who accumulates for 
himself the greatest material wealth. He who 
is happy himself and who makes others happy is 
he who has learned that it is more blessed to give 
than to receive. He who gives himself for the 
good of others, which is the essence of self-sac- 
rifice ; he who gives his possessions to relieve the 
suffering and the oppressed, which is the acme of 



profit [115] 

charity; he who gives his time and his thought 
and his sympathy to strengthen the weak and to 
encourage the heartless, this is he who is giving 
more than the strength of muscle or mind, he is 
giving the strength of his heart. This is the 
service that the world needs ; it is a hard service 
to give. Any man can labor with his hands. 
Many men can think. Not every man is strong 
enough to have sympathy and to show it. Not 
every man is big enough to live outside of him- 
self. Not every man is brave enough to throttle 
selfishness and enthrone love. Not every man is 
good enough to fulfil the greatest commandment 
and lose himself in order to find. But this is the 
man, whether rich or poor, whose worth cannot 
be counted because he serves with the strength 
of his heart. 

But even this is not the highest form of serv- 
ice. Men were created in the image of God and 
were meant to be like him. The world can never 
reach its best until righteousness is supreme and 
men are like God. He who in his own life be- 
comes like God and helps others to become like 
him too has found the highest and best form of 
service possible to man. Would you know your 
worth ? 



[ii6] TEtite Wealtb 

How much Righteousness have You Established? 

The supreme end of man is to glorify his Crea- 
tor by becoming like him. The supreme goal of 
human endeavor is that the world may become 
a fit dwelling-place for the children of God. 
Through the centuries the race has struggled up- 
ward toward better conditions without and with- 
in. This is not " otherworldliness," it is a prac- 
tical endeavor for here and now. It is not an 
attempt to get to heaven, it is an attempt to bring 
heaven to men. The greatest value know T n to 
men is moral character. It is that which dis- 
tinguishes man from all other created beings. 
Even the angels of heaven have not moral char- 
acter in the sense in which men may know it. 
This character comes not from without; it is 
produced from within. It is an expression of the 
highest life, and such life is obtained only by 
a vital union with the eternal Spirit of God. 
Righteousness is the fruit of the overflowing life 
within. He who establishes righteousness in the 
world as the fruit of his own God-filled life, and 
then leads, others into an experience like his own, 
he it is that serves the world in that which is 
highest and best. His is the labor of the soul. 



profit [117] 

If he is faithful in his service he will labor with 
•his hands, his brain, and his heart, but all these 
are only instruments which he uses in the supreme 
service, — the service of the soul. 

No man's worth can be told until his soul serv- 
ice is computed. If he fails here he fails in the 
greatest. He may labor faithfully with his hand 
or brain or heart, and if his influence here is 
negative it will outweigh all that he has done. 
He may have produced much with hand or brain, 
and then because of the direction of his soul 
activity the Master might say : " It were well 
for him if a millstone were hanged about his 
neck, and he were thrown into the sea." He 
might have served the world with muscle or 
mind and seeming sympathy, and still the Master 
might say of him, " Good were it for that man 
if he had not been born." 

How much richer in material necessities, in 
knowledge, in happiness, in righteousness is the 
world to-day than it was the day that you were 
born; richer because you have lived and served? 
Compared with these things, how little and insig'- 
nificant and mean are money and houses and 
lands! What a man is worth can never be 
measured by the things that he possesses. What 



[n8] utue TOUealtb 

a man has gotten from the world and consumed 
upon himself has only made the world poorer. 
Only that which a man gives back to the world, 
grown larger because he has held it, is of value. 
In the parable of the Pounds one man is con- 
demned, not because he wasted anything, but be- 
cause he failed to use and increase and give back 
the pound with the gain to him from whom he 
received it. It matters not whether one rides in 
splendid procession, or whether he walks the street 
alone, he may know how much he is worth by 
what he is and what he has done. 



{Taking Stock 



What should a man give in exchange for his life? 




X 



O measure the real value of a life is 
beyond human power. We can think 
of it only in comparative terms and 
form but a slight estimate of its worth. In the 
New Testament Greek the same word, used 
often (<pvxij, suke), is sometimes translated 
" life " and sometimes " soul." It means that 
part of man's nature which we think of as the 
man himself, the real responsibility, that which 
thinks and reasons, loves and aspires, wills and 
acts. It is the life which has already begun and 
which shall never end. It is that part of man 
which is immaterial and immortal. We do not 
think to-day of the soul as something separate 
from the life that now is. Such a thing as a 
" soul substance " has passed out of modern 
philosophical thought. The soul is the whole 
conscious life which is now being lived in the 
body and which, when the body shall perish, shall 
continue to live, either with God or without him. 
This life can be realized in its fulness here in the 

[121] 



[i22] zmc TOlealtb 

body only when it is lived in conformity with the 
controlling will of God and in communion with 
him. It can be realized in its fulness after death 
only as it continues in conformity and commu- 
nion with God. Separation of the soul from God, 
whether in this life or the life to come, is spirit- 
ual death, even as separation of the soul from the 
body is known as physical death. Existence of 
the soul in communion with God is life spirit- 
ual and eternal, whether it be in this world or the 
world to come. Jesus asks, What should a man 
give in exchange for this? And he implies that 
no gift is too great, no price too high ; that there 
is nothing which can be compared in value to the 
soul or the eternal life of a man. 

The Value of the Life that Is 

Men have learned to value the present life, of 
late, as it was never valued before. They have 
learned to think of it as something more than 
mere existence. The estimations which men put 
upon life are often one-sided, deformed, and 
sometimes dwarfed; but man's value of life has 
risen wonderfully in recent years and is still 
rising by leaps and bounds. 



Rafting Stocft [123] 

We lament that men who have caught the 
fever of the age seek so passionately for wealth. 
We say truly that life is dwarfed and that the 
soul is starved and maimed in the battle. We 
lament that so many have succumbed to the 
strange delusion that wealth is of more impor- 
tance than learning or health. We regret that 
many men seem to exist only for their business, 
and that many women seem to exist only for the 
display of the w r ealth which the husband or 
father has won. The pathos is not lessened when 
we consider this condition in its deepest signifi- 
cance and find it is only the blind, misguided 
expression of a desire to find life in its fulness, 
to make life something more than prosaic exist- 
ence. The blind, passionate battle for w r ealth 
that has made of our land a field of conflict, 
strewn with its bloodless slain, is only an effort 
of men to add to the value of life and to find 
its highest satisfaction in the gold that satisfies 
not. No intelligent man spends his strength for 
gold for its own sake, but for what it will add 
to his earthly life. The little that is added he 
considers worth all the time and strength which 
he gives in exchange for it. It is the value which 
he places upon an increase in the meaning of life. 



[>4J TZxwe Meaitb 

Others — each year they are becoming more 
numerous — give their time and strength and 
money in the acquirement of knowledge, in the 
training of the mind. Every year our schools 
are multiplied; every year the attendance at our 
schools of higher learning increases; every year 
the number of fathers aryi mothers who deny 
themselves all the luxuries of life that their sons 
and daughters may be educated is growing. 
More and more are men gaining the impression 
that knowledge is power, and that as knowledge 
increases and the brain is strengthened and the 
mind grows, the life grows broader and deeper 
and higher. One-third of an average life spent 
in getting an education has become the usual 
thing. Does the increase in the meaning and 
the value of life pay for all the sacrifice and the 
effort, the long days of application, and the long 
nights of toil? A recent graduate who was an 
apprentice to a blacksmith when he entered col- 
lege said to me : "If after spending all these 
years of hardship, considering all the cost, I were 
compelled to go back to the shops to-morrow, 
knowing that I should never leave them, I should 
always be glad I went to college. Before, I did 
not know how to live ; comparatively, I knew not 



TEaftlnfl Stock [125] 

what life was." No one can place a value upon 
the smallest enlargement of life. 

Whether we are right or not, most of us place 
the value of health above the value of money or 
even of learning. We believe that life with a 
broken body loses so much of what it otherwise 
might be that we are willing to sacrifice every- 
thing else for health. In youth we are reckless 
and squander our strength; when it is gone we 
sacrifice all else to recover it. Men go to the 
ends of the earth that life may be enlarged by 
health regained. It is not the health itself, but 
the enlarged life that we value. 

And life itself ! How men love it ! How they 
will sacrifice all to have it! Wealth, learning, 
power, health itself, friendship, sometimes love 
and honor — anything will men sacrifice that they 
may live. Old Ponce de Leon is not the only 
man who has risked all on unknown seas in 
search of the fountain of youth. No sacrifice is 
too great if it will buy a year of life or even a 
day. It matters not what the condition of life 
may be, men love it and hate to give it up. Only 
when the brain is so weakened that the mind is 
abnormal do men wish to die. Even though it 
may be humble, even though it may be broken, 



[i26] Unie TKHealtb 

even though it be filled with disappointment and 
suffering, no value can be placed upon an hour of 
life and no effort is too great to prolong it. 

This is true of every life. The time was when 
the humble life was despised, the lives of the 
common people being considered of little value. 
A hundred or a thousand would be sacrificed to 
satisfy the whim of an aristocrat. A heathen 
prince visiting the English court asked to see an 
English execution. When told that a man could 
not be put to death without cause, he asked with 
contempt, " Why be a king if you cannot even 
kill a man to amuse your friends ?" Only in 
Christian lands is the value of life known. When 
Christ died for the individual he placed a value 
upon life which has become the foundation of 
modern civilization. We recognize the value of 
each life because of the possibilities that are 
contained in it. These potentialities no one can 
estimate. No one looking upon the little French 
infant in its mother's arms, the little infant that 
did not know its fingers and its toes belonged to 
the same body, would have ever dreamed that he 
was looking upon the Emperor Napoleon, before 
whom the united world should tremble. No one 
looking upon the little black slave, crawling about 



Uafttng Stock [127] 

half naked in a one-roomed, floorless cabin, could 
have known that he was looking upon the man 
who should stand as the leader of his people, the 
giant of his race — Booker T. Washington. 

Thus we may consider something of the value 
which men place upon life, this life which is as 
" a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and 
then vanisheth away." But we started in search 
of the value of the soul. What is 

The Value of the Life that is to Be? 

The life which men love so well here may be 
only the beginning of the eternal life, the first 
faint breaking of the dawn. Men believe that the 
enlargement of life or the fulfilment of desires 
is worth all that they pay for wealth. This is 
the difference between civilization and savagery. 
But in the eternal life with God every desire shall 
be fulfilled. The complete nature of those de- 
sires, what they shall be we do not know, we 
catch only a glimpse now and then in our better 
moments, but we know they shall be more and 
nobler than the desires of earth, and we know 
that no good thing shall be withheld. Some of 
us think we know too well how much a little 



[i28] zvuc Wealtb 

wealth would enlarge our life, but there we shall 
have " an inheritance, incorruptible and unde- 
filed, and that fadeth not away." 

We believe that the increase in the meaning of 
life pays for all that knowledge costs us. But 
after a third of the life is spent in the schoolroom 
and all the rest of life is spent in learning, we find 
that we have only laid a foundation upon which 
might be builded a complete knowledge. The 
wisest men have been only as little children who 
stand by the seashore and catch up in their tiny 
hands a few drops of the sparkling waters while 
the great ocean rolls on. We know a little ; there 
is much we wish to know ; and oh, how life would 
grow large if our desire for knowledge could be 
fulfilled! But in the eternal life with God we 
shall know all things. To have chosen the better 
part and to sit forever at the feet of the Christ! 
Every mystery shall be revealed, and we shall 
go on from knowledge to knowledge and from 
glory to glory, " For now we see in a mirror, 
darkly; but then face to face; now I know in 
part; but then shall I know fully even as also I 
was fully known." 

We prize health because of what it adds to life, 
but the soul released will know no troubles to 



Uafting Stocft [129] 

which the flesh is heir. The soul that continues 
with God will know no sickness nor disease nor 
sorrow nor care. " Neither shall there be mourn- 
ing, nor crying, nor pain any more : the first 
things are passed away." 

The soul cannot die. The fullest life is always 
blighted and robbed of its possibilities by death. 
The brightest life is always darkened by the 
cloud that will not pass away, the cloud that must 
break at last in the all-engulfing storm. The un- 
satisfied life cries out for the loved ones that have 
gone, and death's specter lifts his hand in warn- 
ing whenever we would rest content. But after 
death the redeemed soul will live and separa- 
tion will be no more. Ambitions shall not be 
thwarted. Hopes shall be attained. For " he 
shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and 
death shall be no more." " And I give unto 
them eternal life ; and they shall never perish, and 
no one shall snatch them out of my hand." 

Who can estimate the possibilities of an eternal 
life, a life everlasting in the presence of God ? If 
life can be developed in a few short years from 
the unconsciousness of the babe to the genius of 
an Edison or the statesmanship of a Gladstone, 
what are the possibilities of a life that knows no 
1 



[i3o] TErue Mealtb 

ending, a life with the infinite God as teacher? 
Who can place a value or a limit upon such a life 
in wealth and wisdom, in joy and holiness? We 
know not what we shall be, " but we know that, 
when he shall appear, we shall be like him." 

The human soul is the only creation whose 
possibilities are unlimited. What it may become 
" doth not yet appear." Perhaps it shall never 
appear, for the infinite can never be reached. We 
shall go onward and upward throughout eternity, 
ever nearer and nearer the perfect fulfilment of 
the aspirations of that which is created " in the 
image of God." The human mind staggers under 
the conception. We are driven at last to despair 
when we would estimate the value of one human 
life. What would a man give in exchange for 
this? He would give all, but there is nothing 
worthy to give. But Paul points upward, up to 
life in all its fulness, in all its possibilities, up 
until the eye is dazzled by the brightness of a 
regnant character sitting with the Christ upon 
his throne, and he shouts, " The gift of God is 
eternal life through Jesus Christ!" Such are the 
possibilities for you ; for the most sinful soul you 
know ; for the blackest man in blackest Africa. 



p 



TEbe pvicc 



"He gave his only begotten Son." 




XI 



LMIGHTY GOD paid an infinite price 
for the human soul. The word price 
is new in this connection; we are al- 
most startled by it; we have always thought of 
the free gift of God. It was a gift, but it was a 
gift for the accomplishment of a purpose, and 
that is always a price paid. 

God's Gift 

" He gave his only begotten Son." John is 
careful not to say merely that God sent. A gift 
is always the expression of love. A payment 
may be with or without love, but not a gift. A 
man may contend, " I do give when there is no 
love. I gave five dollars for a cause in which I 
was not interested and for which I had no love. 
All the other men in the company were giving 
five dollars each, so I gave the same amount to 
the same cause." But the man makes a mistake. 
He paid five dollars to retain his respectability 

l 1 ^ 



[i34] Ztnc Ufflealtb 

among the crowd in which he found himself, pos- 
sibly to retain his own self-respect, but he gave 
nothing to the cause he did not love. Another 
will say, " A friend asked me to-day for five 
dollars for mission work in India. I have no 
interest in mission work and no love for India's 
people. But the friend who asked me is an old 
and dear friend, he was very anxious about it, 
so I gave five dollars for the work." Such a 
man gives five dollars as an expression of his love 
for his friend, he gives it as a sacrifice to that 
love, he gives it, but not to the cause of missions 
in India. When God gave he expressed the 
reality and the intensity of his love. 

To give is to sacrifice. A sacrifice is a loss 
voluntarily incurred in behalf of another person 
or interest; the giving up of some valued or de- 
sired object for another or a future good. 

A gift is voluntary. If it is compelled, it is a 
payment pure and simple. The voluntary ele- 
ment presupposes desire, which in its essence is 
love. Thus we get a conception of John's mean- 
ing when he says that " God so loved . . . that 
he gave." But we get no conception of the mag- 
nitude of that love until we consider the nature 
of the gift. 



Zbc price [135] 

" God gave his Son, the only begotten/' which 
is equivalent to saying that " God gave his Son, 
his only Son." John puts it in the strongest pos- 
sible form. No gift can be imagined dearer, no 
price greater. God's only Son! All men are 
sons of God in a natural sense ; God is the Creator 
and Life-giver of every man, in the usual mean- 
ing of the term his Father. Each created man 
is as dear to God's heart as my own little son is 
dear to his father's heart ; as much dearer as the 
infinite love of God is greater than the love of 
man. But the gift which God gave was dearer 
to him than that, for the relation between the 
giver and the gift must have been closer than 
that, for John says it was his only Son. All 
those who have been redeemed through the 
Christ are called sons of God, sons in a peculiar 
sense, sons of God because they partake of his 
nature and his Spirit dwells in them, sons of 
God because they do his will. Throughout all 
the teachings of Jesus we catch glimpses of how 
dear the redeemed child is to his Father's heart, 
but the gift which God gave for the world was 
dearer than that. The relation between the 
Father and the Son was closer than that, for it 
was his only Son. The relation between the 



[i36] Utrxc TOlealtb 

members of the Godhead we can never under- 
stand completely in this world, because we have 
nothing with which we can compare it and can 
never experience it; but we know that the Son 
was of the very essence of the Father, that the 
Son and the Father were one. How dear he was 
to the Father's heart we cannot conceive, for we 
know no relation like it. As far as the love of 
the infinite God surpasses the love of mortal 
hearts, and as far as the relation between the in- 
finite God and his only Son surpasses the rela- 
tion between the human father and his son, so 
far does the love of God for the Christ surpass 
any love which we know or of which we can 
think. Yet this was the gift of God. He gave 
him to be rejected of men, gave him to be mocked 
and insulted, gave him to suffer and die; and 
these were only the symbols of the spiritual suf- 
ferings which the Christ endured. Measure the 
gift, compute the value of the price, all ye who 
can! 



The Purpose of God's Gift 

God gave his Son that men might live. The 
purpose of God's gift was a purpose of universal 



Zbe price [137] 

love. It was a purpose of eternal life to the in- 
dividual; "whosoever"; any man. It was the 
possibilities in the individual soul of man that 
God so loved that he gave his Son in order that 
those possibilities might be realized. 

God's Value of the Human Soul 

If God so loved man as to pay an infinite price 
that man might live and be with him, that man's 
soul might reach the possibilities contained in it, 
then God considered the soul of man of infinite 
value. Only that which is of value can be wisely 
loved or sacrificed for. If a man should pay any 
price for an object that was worthless, he would 
be foolish. If a man should pay a larger price 
for any object than it could be worth to him, he 
would be unwise. A law that is true here is true 
anywhere that God reigns. Then if God should 
give for any object more than that object is 
worth, God would do a foolish thing. This is 
inconceivable ; God is the source of all wisdom. 

It is true that the gift was an expression of 
love. It is also true that a wise love for any 
object must be in proportion to its value. There- 
fore since God loved man with an infinite love, 



[138] Ume Wealtb 

so loved him that he made an infinite sacrifice 
for him, the soul of man is of infinite value. In 
this lies the secret of God's marvelous love. God 
never loved a worthless world ; he never gave his 
Son for a worthless life. Man was sinful and 
undeserving, he had forfeited all claims on the 
divine mercy, but worthless he was not. God 
gave not his Son for a " worm," nor for a world 
of worms. Humanity has been slandered too 
long. The soul of man in the mind of God is 
worth the price he paid. 

God's greatest gift to man himself is personal 
freedom. When God made man free, he en- 
trusted to his care that which is of infinite value, 
his own soul. How careful each ought to be that 
he keep that gift free from the effects of sin! 
How careful should be each one that he does not 
hide it away in the corroding earth, but that he 
increase its value by using it in the affairs of the 
kingdom! When he finds that his soul has been 
spotted by the temptations of sin, how quickly he 
ought to bring it back to God for forgiveness and 
cleansing ! 

The life of each man belongs to God. It is his 
by creation; his by right of the price he paid to 
redeem it. " Ye were bought with a price," 



Zbc price [139] 

might be written to all men. No man has a right 
to do with his soul as he pleases. The man who 
ruins his soul is robbing God of that which is his 
own and is of infinite value. It has been reported 
that in South Africa was discovered a diamond 
valued at forty millions of dollars. The value of 
such a diamond in no w r ay compares with the 
value of the human soul, which belongs to God. 
Yet men carelessly waste the life, heartlessly 
break, tarnish, destroy the soul. How can a man 
boast of his honesty because he pays his small 
obligations in the material business of life, while 
he refuses to give to God that which he owes to 
him, his own soul ? How can a man boast of his 
morality because he does no external wrong to 
his fellow man, when he is robbing God of the 
soul that has been entrusted to him? How can 
men boast of their freedom, and say they are 
under no such obligation as the Christian is, when 
they have refused to meet the first and greatest 
obligation of life, the giving unto God the soul 
that he has bought with an infinite cost? When 
men realize God's value of a human soul, the 
transformation of the world will be near. 



pit 



Hbe Estimate 



" The Son of man came to seek and to save that which 
was lost." 




XII 



HRIST himself placed the highest value 
on life. He did the most for its en- 
largement. He taught men how to 
live truly and how to conquer death. It was the 
worth of the human soul that brought him from 
heaven to earth. It was the possibilities of life 
for men that made him exchange his " Father's 
house " for the Bethlehem stable, the throne of 
the universe for the cross of Calvary. 



Christ's Work Among Men 

impresses us with the high estimation in which he 
held human life. The incident with Zaccheus is 
typical. Zaccheus was the head man of the tax- 
gatherers. To the Jew every Gentile was a dog, 
but for the personal representative of the author- 
ity and greed of the Roman Government no name 
could be found that would answer. They hated 
him with what they supposed was a holy hatred. 

[i43] 



[i44] XTtue TOlealtb 

Most of the publicans deserved their hatred, for 
most of them were oppressors and thieves. It is 
doubtful if Zaccheus was better than the average 
of his profession, and it is certain that he was 
heartily hated by the Jews of his community. 
Jesus had just healed the blind beggar, Bartimeus, 
and had won the favor and the praise of the multi- 
tude that followed him. The outcast publican, 
hearing the noisy crowd approaching, desired to 
see the famous Galilean. Being short of stature, 
he could not hope to see over the heads of the 
crowd, so he ran down the street and perched on 
the limb of a huge sycamore that spread its 
branches over the road. Of course Jesus saw 
him; the whole crowd saw him and laughed, just 
as a crowd will jeer any man whom it believes to 
be doing a foolish thing. They were expecting 
Jesus to ridicule and to denounce the little man 
in the tree. But something in the face of the pub- 
lican made Jesus know the desires of his heart 
and he became his friend. The great crowd was 
disappointed and angry, and murmured its re- 
sentment ; but Jesus taught them that the soul of a 
sinful man was worth more than the pride of the 
self-righteous Jews, that the possibilities of a 
transformed life were of more importance than 



Ube 3£gtimate [us] 

their fanatical hatred, as he calmly said, " The 
Son of man came to seek and to save that which 
was lost." " Those who are well need not a phy- 
sician, but those who are sick." 

One day Jesus, wearied with the journey, sat 
resting by Jacob's well in Samaria. The Jew 
would not speak to a Samaritan. The custom of 
the time also forbade that a man should speak to 
a woman in a public place, even though she were 
his wife. The doctors had declared that a woman 
was not to be taught the law. They declared it 
were better that the law should be burned. One 
of the daily thanksgivings in the synagogue serv- 
ice was, " Blessed art Thou, O Lord. . . Who 
hast not made me a woman." To the well where 
Jesus rested came a woman ; a sinful adulteress of 
the hated Samaritans. His disciples came and 
found him talking with her, and it is not strange 
that they marveled. Jesus that day risked his 
standing as a Jew, risked his reputation as a 
doctor of the law, risked his reputation as an 
honorable man by teaching this poor woman 
whose life had been blackened by sin; risked all 
because he looked deep into that sinful life and 
saw the precious jewel that he came to find — a 
human soul. 

K 



046] XTrue Wicaltb 

77^ Parables of Jesus 

declare his conception of the value of a soul. 
There are three great parables of the finding and 
the saving of the lost : the Lost Sheep, the Lost 
Coin, and the Lost Son. These parables were 
drawn out by the complaining of the Jews that 
he welcomed sinners and godless people. 

The first is a parable of pastoral life. " Sup- 
pose you have a hundred sheep/' he says, " and 
one of them wanders away and is lost, what do 
you do ? Do you leave it to die on the mountains 
and forget it because it was only one of a hun- 
dred? No. You leave the whole flock in the 
mountain pasture and you go climbing the ter- 
raced hills and following the deep canons, call- 
ing, calling, until you have awakened the sleep- 
ing echoes and the great stony heart of the moun- 
tain has felt your sorrow and repeats with you the 
lost one's name. When you have found it, you 
do not chide nor punish, you do not even make it 
retrace its steps, but you take it in your arms 
and upon your shoulder you carry it home with 
joy." We lose the sweet tenderness of this para- 
ble because we have lost the pastoral life which 
the Lord's hearers knew, and to us the love of the 



TEbe Estimate [147] 

Eastern shepherd for his sheep seems almost in- 
credible. But those to whom he spoke understood, 
for in the fight with the wild beast of the moun- 
tain the Eastern shepherd would give his life for 
his sheep. The Pharisees caught the significance of 
the parable, and we see it now as only a thin veil 
behind which stands the Good Shepherd, who 
came and gave his life for the soul that had wan- 
dered from home. 

The second parable is of domestic life. " Sup- 
pose a woman has ten silver coins and one of them 
is lost. Does she let it go and say, ' One coin 
matters but little, I have nine left ' ? She lights 
a candle and searches the house. She sweeps the 
floor; she peers into every crevice." Why is she 
so anxious? It is a small piece of money. But 
to the woman its value cannot be estimated. The 
ten pieces of silver were fastened together with a 
band, and had been given by her bridegroom at 
the marriage altar. They must be guarded with a 
jealous, sacred care. They must be worn upon 
the forehead upon every public occasion. They 
stood to the world as a token of her marriage 
vows and the purity with which she had kept 
them. If one coin should be lost, it meant not 
only that she had been careless, but, according to 



[us] Zvue Hfflealtb 

Eastern custom, it signified to the world that she 
had been unfaithful to her marriage vow, that 
the purity and sanctity of her position as a wife 
had been broken and destroyed, and she was an 
outcast. Home, children, husband, character, 
love, happiness, all that is dear to a woman's heart 
is at stake. All depends upon the finding of the 
coin. How eagerly she searches with breaking 
heart and tear-filled eyes for the coin that is lost ! 
It must be found before her lord comes home! 
How T her heart leaps when at last she sees it 
glisten! Her whole soul goes out to it as if it 
were a living thing, as she clasps it in her hands 
and presses it to her lips. It is not strange that 
she stands in the door of her home and, holding 
up the coin shining in the light, calls upon the 
women of her neighborhood to rejoice with her 
because she has found the piece that was lost. 

" Even so, I say unto you," said Jesus, " there 
is joy in the presence of the angels of God over 
one sinner that repenteth." Christ's value of a 
soul! 

The next parable carries the thought still 
higher. It comes into the very heart of human 
life. It is the familiar and beautiful story of the 
son that wandered away. Skilfully Jesus pictures 



TLbc Estimate [149] 

the son that is lost ; that does service in a foreign 
field, hateful service, enslaved by a foreign mas- 
ter. He pictures the old father at home, waiting 
and watching with a broken heart. He pictures 
at last the wanderer's return and the glad wel- 
come that awaits him; the best robe, shoes for 
his feet, a ring of gold — the symbol of authority 
— for his hand, the father's kiss of equality upon 
his neck, the fatted calf for a feast, and hired 
singers and dancers for merriment. We can all 
understand that picture, it comes so close to us 
all. It is Jesus' picture of the value which heaven 
places upon the soul that returns to its Father's 
house. 

Christ's Specific Teaching 

Jesus taught much concerning the value of life, 
the value of the soul that can never perish. How 
often he exhorted men to put the emphasis of 
their efforts, not upon the passing things of earth, 
but upon the improvement of the life that is 
eternal ! How often did he insist that the life is 
more than material things! How often did he 
insist that if a man should gain all things and lose 
his life, he would lose everything ! This can only 



[i5q] TLtwc Tlfflealtb 

mean that Jesus believed that the value of the 
whole material world counts as nothing compared 
to the value of one soul. 

Christ believed that man's life was worth sa- 
ving and he came to save it. How ? " As Moses 
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so 
must the Son of man be lifted up." He saw the 
cross from the beginning of his ministry, yet he 
never turned back. He poured out his life that 
men should know God, and knowing him, have 
life. Did he pay too much ? He was wise. Are 
we wise when we neglect the life for which he 
died? 



pirn 



Zbe Silent partner 



behold, I stand at the door/' 




XIII 

HETHER the writer intended it or 
not, the Song of Songs gives a beau- 
tiful picture of the love of the Holy 
Spirit for a human life. When the Divine Spirit 
spoke in the Revelation, " Behold, I stand at the 
door and knock,'' he referred directly to the fifth 
chapter of that song in which the lover, in shep- 
herd form, comes to the closed door of his loved 
one's chamber and stands knocking and calling 
through the long night until his locks are wet 
with the dew, seeking to awaken the loved one 
that sleeps within. The human heart is a closed 
chamber, within which sleeps the human soul with 
all its inherent beauty and its infinite possibilities. 
It may be that the heart is bolted by ignorance, 
unbelief, or prejudice, or it may be by sheer self- 
ishness, which is the essence of sin; but the Spirit 
w 7 aits. If worth is a prerequisite of love, consider 
the value of the soul to the Holy Spirit 

The Spirit 3 s Condescension and Long-suffering 

The picture of the Song of Songs is of King 
Solomon coming to woo a peasant maiden work- 

[i53] 



[154] JLvnc TOlealtb 

ing among the vineyards, darkened by the orien- 
tal sun. Beneath the tan of her face he sees her 
natural beauty. She flees from his presence. He 
comes again disguised as a shepherd, and by long, 
patient wooing seeks to win her as his queen. 
Measure the love of the king that would cause 
him to leave his palace and come by night to the 
door of the peasant's hut! The maiden never 
could have known the king had he not come seek- 
ing her. She could not come to him, a peasant 
girl into the palace of the king. Even so, declares 
the Spirit, does he come to the soul of man. He 
has seen the soul blackened by sin, but he looked 
beneath its ravages and saw the transcendent 
beauties of the soul that might become a fit com- 
panion for the heavenly King. Man rejected the 
Divine Suitor and fled from his presence. He 
then came in the shepherd form, a man among 
men, sharing their condition, their toil, their suf- 
fering, and their hopes, that men might come to 
know him and his love, and knowing him, know 
God. When he returned to his throne in visible 
form, he left not the soul alone, but he returned as 
the Holy Spirit to wait and plead with men to 
make the most of themselves by yielding them- 
selves to him. Measure the love of the Spirit 



Ube Silent partner [155] 

that brings him from the heavenly throne to stand 
at the door of the sinful life. Man never could 
have known him had he not come, for a sinful 
soul could not come alone into the presence of 
the divine holiness. It is the love of the Holy 
Spirit for the soul of man that makes it possible 
for us to enter the palace of the King. How 
beautifully Paul put it when he said, " We know 
not how to pray as we ought ; but the Spirit him- 
self maketh intercession for us with groanings 
which cannot be uttered ! " 

Xot only did the king come to the door of the 
peasant's hut, but the door was shut and the 
maiden sleeping. Then is the king's love truly 
manifested. He does not knock and go away, but 
stands by the door alone in the night, waits in 
the cold and the dew, hoping that his loved one 
will open the door. " Behold, I stand at the 
door/' says the Christ-Spirit, waiting for the 
soul to open. "We marvel at the love of the poet's 
king who waits through the night, but more won- 
derful is the love of heaven's King, who waits at 
the door of the heart of man through long months 
and years. If you go to the door of your ac- 
quaintance and find the door shut, you do not 
wait long; if the one within refuses to open the 



[156] Time Mealtb 

door, you go away grieved, disappointed, angry. 
But at the door of the human heart the Spirit 
stands, not impatient, not disheartened, not an- 
gry, but in compassion and infinite love. Is he 
grieved ? Yes. " In all their affliction he was 
afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved 
them : . . and he bare them and carried them all 
the days of old. But they rebelled, and grieved 
his holy Spirit." Selfishness can be disappointed 
and angered, but only love can grieve. 

The Spirit 's Efforts to Awaken the Soul 

Every means that the Spirit can use he has 
used to waken the sleeping soul. The poet's king 
did not only stand and wait at the closed door of 
his loved one, but all through the night he was 
knocking. He put in his hand through the hole 
in the door in an effort to reach the bolt and un- 
fasten the door from within. Thus has the Spirit 
not only stood at the door of your life but, if you 
have not opened the door, all through the years 
he has been knocking. He has even sought to 
open the heart from within. By his hand he has 
guided your life; he has preserved you from 
danger and death; he has provided your daily 



Zbc Silent partner [157] 

living; he has given you praying friends. In 
every way he has sought to awaken you to a 
sense of his presence, Even, it may be, has he 
put in his hand and touched the heart strings of 
your life by taking away that one whom you 
loved more than all the world beside, in a vain 
effort to awaken in your heart a sense of his 
presence, but your soul has slept and you have 
refused to hear the knocking of his hand. 

Not only did the king knock at the door of the 
sleeping maiden, but again and again did he call 
in words of ceaseless love that she would arise 
and open the door. " Open to me, my sister, my 
love, my dove, my undefiled ; for my head is filled 
with dew, my locks with the drops of the night." 
Neither has the Christ-Spirit stopped with the 
knockings of his hand, but all these years before 
the door of your heart has his voice been calling. 
The dear old Book, with his message of hope and 
salvation, he has placed in your hands, and in 
it you have read often his words of love and 
entreaty. In the house of God for years you 
have heard his words of invitation proclaimed. 
Through the lips of your friends and loved ones 
he has pleaded with your soul to open the door 
and let him come in. Since you were a little 



[i53] Unie Mealtb 

child at your mother's knee, while at your work, 
when at your play, sometimes alone in the still- 
ness of the night have you heard the voice of the 
divine Spirit pleading at the entrance of your 
closed life. Every lofty thought, every noble as- 
piration, every impulse for good, every desire 
for purity and holiness has been only the echo of 
the voice of the Christ-Spirit that is calling you. 

The Spirit's Respect for the Human Life 

The king of the beautiful poem never forced 
open the door of the peasant maiden's home. 
Could he have done so? Not without violating 
the sacred rights of his every subject. Was not 
the authority of the king supreme? Could he 
not carry away to his palace the bride that he 
loved? King he was, but it gave him no power 
over the heart of a free subject, and with all his 
authority he could not compel the love of one 
poor peasant girl. He could only stand and plead. 
The Christ-Spirit will never force open the door 
of a human heart. He could not do so without 
violating the sacred rights of personal freedom 
conferred upon every soul created in the image of 
God. But is he not Almighty God ? Has he not 



XTbe Silent partner [159] 

a right to come into any life that he will? Al- 
mighty God he is and all things are subject to 
his power, but he could not compel the allegiance 
of one human life without transforming the 
prayers and praises of a soul created in God's 
image into the mere creakings and grindings of a 
machine. 

The Danger of Losing the Spirit's Interest 

The peasant girl awoke and heard the pleading 
of her lover's voice, but in half-consciousness be- 
tween sleeping and waking, she hesitated. She 
had put off her garment, it would be a trouble to 
put it on. She had removed her sandals and 
washed her feet, why should she soil them by go- 
ing to the door ? When at last she awoke to the 
full meaning of the loving voice, she arose and 
robed and anointed her hands with myrrh and 
opened the door, only to find that she had waited 
too long and her lover had gone. Heartbroken 
and alone she sought for him through the night, 
stumbling in the darkness, mocked by the watch- 
men and robbed by the guards. " And Jehovah 
said, My Spirit shall not strive with man for- 
ever." " They rebelled, and grieved his holy 



[i6q] Urue Wealtb 

Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, 
and himself fought against them." " But unto 
him that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit 
it shall not be forgiven." Will you hesitate be- 
cause of the effort it will require to follow and 
serve him? Will you wait until he knocks no 
more? Will you destroy the soul for which he 
pleads; will you sell it for the pleasures of sin, 
that will turn as the ungrateful cur, bite the hand 
that feeds it, and that will sting like the serpent 
that has warmed itself in your bosom? Though 
he comes in shepherd form, he is King, and all 
the wealth of the universe is in his hand. 

Fortunately, at last, the peasant girl found the 
king, and in love and gratitude became the queen 
of his palaces. But she might never have heard 
his voice again. So may each poor human life 
hear His voice, open the door for communion and 
fellowship with him, and be filled with joy and 
peace and love and purity and holiness. Life 
without him is dwarfed and pitiful. Life with 
him is sublime. " Behold, I stand at the door 
and knock: if any man hear my voice and open 
the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with 
him, and he with me." 



MAR 12 1913 



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